


Two Sides of the Same Coin

by FloingMachines



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Noir AU, OW Femslash Big Bang, Sort Of, The shady underground
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 15:12:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17769158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloingMachines/pseuds/FloingMachines
Summary: Chicago, Post WWI and Pre-Depression. The criminal underground is in full swing and Sombra has found herself mixed up in it for decades, that is until she uncovers a secret that she didn't expect. Suddenly torn between who she can and can't trust, she turns to a rogue detective from the local police department and stumbles into something she never could have expected.





	Two Sides of the Same Coin

**Author's Note:**

> I'm super proud of this work, I did it for the Overwatch Femslash Big Bang and two people did excellent art for it :)  
> You can find them below:  
> 1\. For the first meeting scene between Sombra and Gabe, done by Steve-Grant-Rogers on Tumblr [X](http://steve-grant-rogers.tumblr.com/post/182780386328/wow-what-a-fun-time-it-was-working-with-this)  
> 2\. For the last meeting scene between Sombra and Gabe, done by Brandewyn Illustrations on Tumblr [X](https://brandewynillustrations.tumblr.com/post/182784812239/hello-all-exciting-news-i-participated-in-this)  
> Be sure to show them some love!

“Ohhh Guillermo,” the young woman mused to no one in particular but herself. “You should really learn to lock your doors.”

She was surprised at how easy it had been. She had scaled the building under the disguise of the night and crawled through the window into the hallway. There were no windows in his office, probably to prevent someone just like her weaseling in to the building, but the door to his office was unlocked.

There was a very good chance that this was a trap. The Chicago police had been fixing to pin her down for months now, especially a particularly bright blonde detective that had been nicknamed “Mercy” during the war. Other than the whisperings passed down through the world’s most convoluted game of telephone Sombra knew nothing about the woman other than her nickname. What she had going for her was that she was a spy for hire and never stayed in one place for too long however she had been hanging around Gabe and his company for a while now. 

She always had the fleeting thought that she was getting too old to be hopping from mob to mob and that the security she enjoyed with Gabe was a sign that she should work for him permanently. No matter what no one should be expecting her at Lumerico’s headquarters. The police were concentrated on Vishkar. The city wasn’t stupid. It felt like Chicago was gearing up for an all out war between Gabe and Sanjay.

However, she was grateful to be a freelancer at heart because she suspected there was something very, very wrong with Lumerico. She hated Vishkar just as much as anyone else, but there was a growing knot in her stomach that Lumerico was hiding more than just grudges and a couple bodies. With any luck she would be able to confirm her suspicions after tonight.

She quietly opened the door to the office and keeping her profile close to the ground she slinked over to a single filing cabinet in the corner. She began to open empty drawer after empty drawer until she opened the middle one and saw it was overflowing with files. She needed to move faster now.

She ran her gloved fingers over the tops of the files and quickly found the names she was looking for. The files were promptly removed from the drawer and shoved them in her bag and slunk out the door she came in and out the same window. She deftly found footholds in the brick and the gutters before hopping to the ground and moving into an alleyway.

Her black clothes faded into her surroundings and the young woman began to live up to her nickname,  _ Sombra _ .

She shed her black clothing in the alley and ditched them in a dumpster with the exception of her gloves. Under the black clothing she was wearing men’s suit pants and a purple jacket over a white shirt. Her bag was casually slung over her shoulder and she walked back out onto the sidewalk and began the walk home.

The night air was freezing against her skin, but unlike others she couldn’t remember a warmer place. If she thought hard about it she could remember a place so unlike Chicago in every way, but she couldn’t be sure if she engineered those memories or if they were truly pieces of her past.

She ducked into the stairwell leading down to her apartment. She was renting anonymously, but that wasn’t uncommon anymore. Landlords were simply aware that many of these anonymous rentals were part of the mob or close affiliates. People were gracious enough to accept cash in the mail paying rent.

The apartment barely looked lived in. It was a single room with a bathroom jutting off of it. In one corner was a kitchen, in the other corner was her mattress that sat on the floor, and all over the ground and the tables were files and papers strewn about. One wall was covered in markings of her own device, a map of sorts. Hexagons with names and crudely taped faces were connected to each other with strings. The only names that had yet to be attached were Gabe and his company.

So far Gabe and his mob, Talon, were a safe bet.

It wasn’t a bad idea to play it safe for now.

She threw the discovered files down on to the table, turned the lights off, and then fell into the bed.

The clock on the wall said it was ten in the morning when she woke up. She rubbed her eyes and shed her clothing on the way to the bathroom where she took a quick shower. She had to meet with Gabe today. He suspected that Vishkar was planning an attack on the power grid and while she would prefer to stay as far away from Sanjay Korpal as possible she knew if she didn’t get the information that somebody else would.

She opened the closet and pulled out her only suit and changed, tucking the white undershirt into her pants and trying to smooth out the wrinkles. She really needed to take it to the dry cleaners, but she could never seem to find the time to make it over. She had spent too much time trying to trail Guillermo and Sanjay at the same time.

She hailed a cab outside the apartment building and decided to sit in the backseat. She knew she was living in an area that had fallen victims to the mob wars. The signs were everywhere - boarded and barred windows, the lack of people on the sidewalk, and the occasional bouquet of flowers left at random on the sidewalk were all strong indicators.

The cab stopped in front of a house that on the outside had seen better days.

“Is this where you wanted to go?” He asked.

“ _ Si, Gracias _ .” Sombra handed him the money and slid out of the car.

The yellow taxi cab sped off towards the distance and she hastily shoved her hands in her pockets as she walked around the back of the house. It was once a colonial style house, reminiscent of the leftover houses in places like Philadelphia and Boston. The white paint was peeling like bark off of a birch tree and it seemed like shingles were coming loose. 

She knew better. The outside only appeared to be crumbling and it was inconspicuous among the houses just like it. It was hiding in plain sight.

The biggest indicator that the house was not what it seemed to be was that the back door was new. It was a solid metal door, and it was the kind that would’ve been used in bunkers in trenches. She looked both ways as a precaution, but she knew even if a normal person had seen her that they wouldn’t say anything. There was no benefit to working against the mobs even the police were wrapped around the gnarled finger of the mob.

She knocked a pattern on the door that was for the most part simple. A small peep hole opened up shortly after she knocked and Sombra couldn’t contain her smile.

“What’s the password?” Amelie’s accent was a strong French accent and her voice carried her history.

“Amelie! How’s my favorite  _ araña _ ?” She leaned against the door and saw Amelie’s eyes squint in either annoyance or amusement.

“Sombra what is the password?” Her exasperation was evident.

“Gabe didn’t give me the new password.”

“ _ C’est des connieries _ , Sombra.”

“Pardon?”

“Bullshit, as the Americans say.”

“Come bring Gabe to the door.”

“He’s unhappy about last night.”

“He knew what he was getting in to when he asked me to help him.” She looked down at her nails. “He knew that he was asking a free agent for help and I told him that I would be doing other projects while working for him. I’ve got it all in writing. Bring Gabe to the door I’m sure we can work this out.”

“You do not need Talon for the money. Why are you so desperate to stay, hm?”

_ I need the security, _ Sombra thought as she mused on her options if Gabe was actually throwing her out.

“Come on,  _ Araña _ .”

“Just come in already.” Amelie rolled her eyes and opened the door and Sombra stepped into Gabe’s headquarters.

“You guys really need a better name than Talon.” She remarked as she walked down a dark hallway.

“And what would you suggest?”

“Blackwatch, literally anything that sounds more interesting or threatening than Talon.”

“You can speak to Gabe about that.”

The hallway opened up to an extravagant room. The floor was carpeted with a deep scarlet color and there were plush couches lining the room. In the far corners were pool and roulette tables among other things. Against another wall was a fully stocked bar. They were making money hand over fist by disobeying prohibition.

Akande was lounging on one of the couches and waved absently and Sombra returned the polite gesture as Amelie led her towards the solid wood door that was the entrance to Gabe’s office. His chair was turned away from the door when she walked in, he was facing a web quite like her own although she was sure that he was looking for something entirely different than she was.

He turned around and even though Sombra had seen his face many times before, it still shocked her. Gabe was another war veteran, his face partially destroyed by a land mine in No Man’s Land. Jagged white and pink lines crossed his face, he was missing his right eye and ear, and he was also missing the tip of his nose. She knew his story, no one would hire him after the war so he sought out his own line of work. The world only had themselves to blame for his wrath.

“I’m still disappointed that you refuse to use a  _ real _ name.” He remarked coldly and without a word Amelie turned and left his office.

“Sombra is my name.”

“It’s the Spanish word for shadow.”

“Is that not what I am?” She asked. “I am nothing but a shadow to anyone.”

“You can sit.” She sat down and Gabe took a deep breath as he laced his fingers together. “Where were you last night?”

“I had something I had to do.”

“Who else are you working for?” She could tell that he wasn’t willing to play games anymore.

“Right now the only person I work for is you.”

“Then where were you last night?”

“I have other  _ jobs _ , but it doesn’t mean anyone else has hired me. I work for myself.”

“Bullshit. You’re no better than the detectives we buy off.”

Sombra leaned over the desk and spread her palm out over the cool surface. “You know that’s not true.”

It was inherently wrong as well. Buying off detectives was a risky move, and it was mostly validated by their connections to the law. There was always a risk with law enforcement that they would return to their roots or that they would have moral qualms. The detectives they paid had someone to go to if shit hit the fan. Her freedom from any sort of organization made her infinitely more valuable.

“It is.”

“It isn’t. Don’t lie to yourself,  _ Gabriel _ .”

“You’re going to do a job for me tonight.” He sighed.

“What is it?”

“Does it matter?”

“Very.”

“Fine, I need you to sneak into Sanjay Korpal’s office and find the plans that target the power grid.”

“And this has to be done tonight?”

“Do you value your looks Sombra?” He opened a desk drawer and took out a long curved knife and twirled it absently, never making eye contact with her.

A lump formed in her throat. The constant threats were a real pain in the ass.

“So tonight then?”

“Yes.”

“Anything else you need?”

“Don’t double cross me.”

“Look, Gabe I understand that you’re hesitant. I really understand, but you also have to understand that if I double cross everyone I work with that I’d end up dead. I’ve worked with all sorts of people in all sorts of places and we all leave on amicable terms. I’m loyal to no one, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean I’m disloyal to everyone.”

“How did you fall into this line of work, Sombra?” He sounds more frustrated than he was curious and was likely obscuring suspicions of some sort.

“That’s confidential. The gist is that I found something that I’m good at and I stuck with it.”

“So what’re you in this for?”  
“It’s better than the alternative. I make money. I’m safe from the mobs for the most part. You hired me because you want shit on Vishkar and on Sanjay and I think you should let me do what I’m good at and ask less questions about it.”

“You’re very blunt.”

“I’ve been told.”

“That mouth may very well get you shot one day.”

She shrugged. “I’ve been told that for years.”

“Watch your back, Sombra.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t get tangled in the wrong crowd.”

“Seems I’m already there.” She stood up and walked out of his office and back into the main room. 

She sank into the couch opposite Akande. He was a war veteran and had lost one of his arms, although she wasn’t sure how. He looked up at her and his dark eyebrows knit themselves together. He always felt like a wild card to her and the little information she had about him pointed to him being an avid anarchist. It seemed like losing your arm in a war that was being fought for nothing led to disillusionment with the system.

“What trouble have you gotten into today, Little Shadow?” He asked as he stood up.

His figure was large and imposing, his broad shoulders barely fit the suit jacket he was wearing. His replacement arm was metal with a large hand that was almost always in a partial fist. He paced the room and then poured himself a scotch at the bar before walking back over waiting for her answer.

“I think I’m getting too old for jumping from place to place.” She admitted. “Gabe thinks I’m going to double cross him. I think I’m on to a big, big problem and you guys seem to be the only ones not affiliated with it. Now there’s a detective that’s apparently obsessed with me too. There’s a lot going on Akande, the world is changing, we’re changing, and there’s a storm coming. I just don’t know when.”

“Do you want to know the detective’s name?” He asked.

“How do you know?”

He shrugged. “I don’t quite live in the same circles you do.”

She wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to know the detective’s name. It would be too tempting to sneak in to the police department and find her records and where she lived and then it would become a game. She would always try to one up this woman and tease her endlessly and doesn’t that defeat the purpose of being a spy?

“Yes.” She answered against her better judgement.

“Angela Ziegler.”

“Swiss?”

“Immigrated here through Ellis Island in 1910 at the age of 16.”

“So that makes her 28?”

“Amelie owes me money, she didn’t think you could do basic arithmetic.”

“I’ve told you that I used to break into safes and banks in my free time! What the fuck do you think that requires?”

“Math.”

“Where is Amelie? I have to go talk to her about math now.”

“She’s out.”

“ _ Carajo _ , will she be back tomorrow?”

“Who knows?”

“Are you sure she’s a sniper, Akande?”

“Have you seen her hit a target?”

“No, but she seems too dense to be a sniper.”

“If you’d have seen her, you wouldn’t ask.”

“I’m going to head out.”

“And do what?”

“Stalk that detective.”

“Don’t get yourself in over your head.”

“I’ve been in over my head for years.” She responded and walked out the front door.

She hailed a cab a couple blocks away from the hideout and asked to go to the police department. The cab driver was different than the one in the morning and didn’t say anything one way or the other about her destination.

The cab ride took her towards a different part of the city, the objectively nicer part. People who had made their living on steel and oil lived in nice apartments and people concealed their weapons when they walked down the street. She drummed her fingers against the window and remembered a time when she had been there too.

It had been a struggle to remember her name nowadays. She was vulnerable if people knew her real name. For a moment she wanted to whisper it to herself in the backseat of the taxi cab to remind herself that she was human.

“I am more than a shadow.” The mumbled words slipped past her lips. 

“DId you say something?” The driver asked.

“No!” She was pulled out of her thoughts. “No, I didn’t say anything.”

They weren’t far from the station and he dropped her off out front. She handed him the cash through the window and let herself inside the station. As usual it was packed and slipped through the throng of people relatively unnoticed. She quickly glanced around her and then opened the door leading to the offices in the back.

She skirted the outside of the cubicles, reading the names out of the corner of her eye. The detectives were always situated in the back and after scanning a few more names she found a little name plaque with the name  _ Angela Ziegler _ inscribed. She looked around again and then slipped into the cubicle.

It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. As soon as she knew who was hunting her she needed more information. The thought of doing anything without information was completely unfathomable to her and if she was going to continue doing work, she needed as much information on Angela as she could get.

Her hands delicately skirted over the tops of old case files, but she quickly moved on to different drawers. This woman had to be hiding something.

The bottom drawer of the filing cabinet was locking and without thinking she pulled a pick out of her pocket and began to try and undo the lock. The drawer popped open easily as she completed an action she had done hundreds and potentially thousands of times before.

All the folders were unlabeled and empty, except for the last one. She picked it up carefully and then opened it, revealing newspaper clippings, blurry photos, an ill-plotted map, and an index card with one word on it.

SOMBRA

It was written in harsh lettering that varied so much from the neat handwriting everywhere else in the cubicle. This was all the confirmation she needed, the rumors were true that there was a detective trying to track her and take her down. She wanted to ask why, why would someone from the police department want to take her down, but she knew that nearly everyone in the city had a good enough reason to kill her. The Chicago PD didn’t have a reason to kill her, per say, but they had more than a good enough reason and evidence to arrest her and throw her in jail for the rest of her life. 

“Angela!” She heard a cheerful voice and hastily took the file and closed the cabinet as she heard the tell tale click of heels against the floor.

Her heart was hammering in her chest as she glanced around her and slid under the desk as she hugged the file to her chest.

“Oh hello Winston.” Her accent was like Amelie’s where the accent was just detectable when she spoke.

Sombra looked up at the woman entering the cubicle. She had a sharp, angular nose and striking blue eyes. Her blonde hair was almost white and she had it pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. She couldn’t see the man she was talking to, but they were engrossed in a conversation about paperwork.

“How’s the Sombra work going?” The man she assumed was Winston asked.

“I had her location pinned down a few weeks ago, but it seems she’s moved again.”

“Jack still thinks you’re crazy.”

“I’m telling you, she’s linked to the murders.” Angela tapped on the desk above her head. “It’s too uncanny. The rumor on the street is that she holds on the information and it seems only natural that she’d at least know  _ something _ about a string of murders.”

There were murders happening? That was one facet of the area surrounding her life that she had chosen to ignore. Everytime she tried to track who died and when she got a headache. It was such a steady flow that it was downright nauseating to track.

She was trying to slow her heart rate. The adrenaline rush was almost too much for her, it was a feeling that never got old. Angela pulled out the chair and Sombra held her breath as she tried to move as far away from the other woman’s exposed leg. This was her closest encounter in a long time and she was definitely in the wrong place to be having this close of a call.

Gabe would get her out of jail just to kill her.

“Angela?” Someone else called.

“What do you need Jack?” She stood up and Sombra released her held breath.

The voices faded and she crawled out from under the desk and tried to walk towards the exit in a calm manner. Her hands were shaking as she clutched the folder she was holding and bursted out on to the busy city street. She hailed a cab with shaky hands and had it drop her off 4 blocks from her apartment.

She all but ran to her apartment and threw the file down on the desk. Then she looked for the Lumerico ones. She tried not to tear the manila files, but as she began to look through the papers she realized that there was something so much worse and so much bigger than anyone was expecting.

Lumerico was running a human trafficking ring.

She was in shock at how detailed the reports were of the mobs involved, it seemed that everyone but Talon was involved. Vishkar was involved, but Sanjay was not. The Volskaya family was involved, but Katya’s name wasn’t listed anywhere. There were so many more questions than answers. Who knew? Were the cops in on it? Was Gabe lying about his involvement?

For once, this was something she couldn’t handle on her own.

_ Three moved by Vishkar, January 3rd _

_ Five moved by Volskaya, April 5th _

_ Thirteen moved by OM, July 16th _

The reports went on for pages. She wasn’t sure who OM was, but she knew Vishkar and Volskaya. There were names she hadn’t heard of too, names from across the country or maybe across the globe. There was no telling how massive the operation was and who was involved.

_ Thirty two moved by the CPD, September 3rd _

For the first time in a very long time Sombra felt tears rising in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks. The Chicago Police Department was in on this, who knows who else? It would take days, even weeks, to go through all the records in detail. Gabe wasn’t in on it, but how long would it be until he was inevitably roped in? 

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

“Guess I can only trust myself.” She said, her voice cracking in the emptiness of her apartment. As the words left her lips she felt a tear in her heart as she lied. There wasn’t a chance she would be able to handle this on her own. Who could she turn to? Gabe? Just because he wasn’t named didn’t mean that he wasn’t somehow apart of the whole scheme.

She turned to her spiderweb of people and of lies and pulled out the yarn she had been using to keep track. With tears in her eyes she began to cut strands and link them together.

“I’ll find you and I’m going to take you the fuck down.”

The first tack struck the wall.

Later that day she had the important files in her backpack as she walked out of her home. She walked a few blocks south and stashed them in a small cache she had made when she had first gotten into her line of work. She went north and then west towards Vishkar’s headquarters. She had to do this job for Gabe and then she had to spend some time alone and spend some time formulating a plan. Until she knew anything for sure she knew that the only person she could trust with this information was herself.

The Vishkar building was tall and imposing, but she had snuck in before. She could scale the rain gutters and perch herself a few window sills below Sanjay’s office. From there she would enter the building through a window and move upwards through the ventilation. She would then drop into Sanjay’s office, retrieve the information, and leave.

She scurried up the gutter and through the window like it was second nature, and it was to her now. Careful not to disturb anything on the desk, she hauled herself into the ventilation system and began a slow and steady ascent towards Sanjay’s office.

Removing the grate, she dropped down onto the floor and as she stood up her blood ran cold. It wasn’t out of place how relaxed the security was in the building, but something felt wrong.

“I know you were under my desk today.” A woman’s voice with a swiss accent called. Sombra’s blood ran cold as she spoke.

“Who else is with you?” Sombra answered hesitantly.

“I’m working alone. No one at the department cares about you.”

Sombra breathed a sigh of relief. “You don’t want to do this.” She could sense that she had her back to the detective and she instinctively tensed in case she had to quickly move out of the way.

“Why not?”

“You care about the public safety, right?”

“I’m a cop.”

Sombra could hear her moving closer and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “There is something bigger than us happening here. It is bigger than you, it is bigger than me, and it is sure as hell bigger than the entire city of Chicago. I need you to let me go so I can figure out what exactly it is.”

“That’s a good one.” Her tone was monotone and she squeezed her eyes shut. She had been wrong. Angela wasn’t one to bargain.

“I’ll show you, Angela I swear to God that there is something really, really bad happening here.”

“How do you know my name?”

“You said it yourself,” Her breathing was shallow. “I was under your desk today.”

“What are you doing at Vishkar tonight?”

“I’m on a job.”

“For whom?”

“The Reaper, Talon.”

“Is this the  _ big thing _ ?”

“No, but Vishkar’s planning to take out the city’s energy to prove a point. It’s not a good situation.”

“Explain to me why this is relevant?”

“I need to keep working for Talon, I don’t know who I can trust right now and I need to act like everything’s normal.”

“And you’ve decided to trust me?” Her voice faltered and betrayed the fact that Sombra had piqued her interest.

Sombra turned around and was face to face with Angela. If she wasn’t in a life or death situation, she would’ve made a comment about how much more attractive the other woman was up close. She was almost a head taller than her and had her hand rested on her hip.

“If the rest of the Chicago PD isn’t here, it means you’re acting alone. It also means they’re not listening to you.”

“Awful rude for someone who’s trying to convince me not to arrest her.”

All the lights turned on in the building.

“ _ Carajo!  _ Angela come on this is important.” She didn’t want to be reduced to begging, but she would if she had to. She was not about to be stopped this easily.

“And?”

“If you want to help people, here’s your chance. I can show you everything.”

“Security! Who’s here?”

“ _ Schiesse _ !”

“Let me guess you aren’t supposed to be here?” Sombra asked and Angela bit her lip and nodded. “I...I can get you out. You just have to hear me out on my shit.”

“Fine. If it doesn’t check out then I’ll just arrest you.”

“Fair enough.”

Sombra looked around wildly. The detective was surprisingly calm when in danger, but her eyes were betraying her. They were strikingly blue and now they were wide and glancing around the room frantically. She grabbed her hand and pulled her into the office’s coat closet. The small space forced them face to face and Sombra pressed a finger to Angela’s lips as she tried to speak.

There were steps in the office, the unmistakable sound of loafers clacking against hardwood floors. Angela had a death grip on her arm and Sombra was really trying to ignore how attractive this detective was.

_ She’s practically your mortal enemy here, stop looking at her lips _ , she couldn’t keep her thoughts straight.  _ This doesn’t help you at all. _

“Who’s here?” It was a man’s voice. His footsteps were getting closer to the closet.

“What’s your plan if he opens the door?” Angela mouths, eyebrows arching with each miming.

Sombra mimed a fist and then running legs with her fingers and then shrugged. She couldn’t think of a better option if he discovered they were hiding in there, she was risking enough as it was with Angela seeing her true identity. There was no way she’d leave a security guard standing long enough to remember it too.

The door handle began to turn and Sombra shook out of Angela’s grip and balled her hands into fists, ready to strike. The door almost opened when something else must’ve caught his eye.

“Are you in the vents?” His footsteps wandered away from the door and then after more absent mumbling he broke out into a run and left the room.

“We have to get out of here.” Sombra said quietly, opening the door. “I know where the emergency exit is.”

“You do?”

“Can we please get out of here? We’re wasting time.”

“Fine.”

“No more questions until we get out of here.”

“Fine.”

“Great, let’s move.”

Sombra grabbed her hand and began to run out of the office, veering right in the hallway. She was trying to keep her footsteps light and fast, but her usual stealth was hard to attain with another person. The last door in the hallway was labeled  _ EMERGENCY EXIT, ALARM WILL SOUND _ .

“Sombra…”

She flung open the door and an earsplitting alarm bell rang as they moved down the stairwell two steps at a time. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she noticed they were getting closer to the ground floor. She threw open the doors leading to the outside and still dragging Angela behind her, began to run through dark alleys surrounding the building and didn’t stop until she was seven blocks out from the Vishkar building.

“You better start explaining what this big secret is.”

Angela grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her above the ground slightly. If this wasn’t the detective that had been hunting her for months and then threw it all away seemingly on a whim, she would’ve felt much different. The Swiss woman was strong, her biceps rippling with the effort of holding her up.

“Lumerico is running a human trafficking ring. It might be worldwide, but it’s across the country at least.” The words rushed out of her mouth and as soon as she said it, Angela’s face changed. It was softer somehow.

“You’re fucking with me.”

“No! I’m not I have proof.”

“Where?”

“I hid it, I’ll take you back to my place and show you though.”

“You’re willing to take me to your house?”

“I know you’re wondering what I have to gain from this.”

“I am, actually.”

“Well Gabe’s going to fuck up my face now that I didn’t get the Vishkar files for him so I can’t go back to Talon. That’s the first thing. The second is that I can’t in good conscious know all this shit and not do anything. This is worse than anything any of these mobs have done since I’ve been working with them. This isn’t money or drugs or bribery, these are real people who are being hurt and there are police departments in on it.”

“And you care?”

“I’m not a bad person.”

“You steal confidential information for a living.”

“You work for a corrupt police department.”

Angela’s silence answered her question.

“We really need to get out of here.”

“Guess I have nowhere better to be.” Angela muttered and then started following Sombra down the sidewalk.

She still wasn’t sure this was the right move, but there was nothing she could do now. There were bigger issues than having a hot detective agree to help you and be following you back home.

_ You have to stop thinking of her as a hot detective. _

She grabbed her backpack out of her cache and double checked the contents. Angela was mostly silent the entire time, probably observing her to make sure she was going right to a trap.

“What weapons are you carrying?” She asked suddenly and Sombra looked up, surprised.

“None.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying. I don’t carry weapons.”

“Ah, so you’re strictly information?”

“Uh huh.”

“That’s weird, I was trying to link you to a string of murders.”

“I heard. What the hell made you think I was apart of that? Is that how you take me?”

“I thought you were…”

“A serial killer?”

“Well for lack of a better term…”

“I don’t kill in my line of this job. That’s what other people do.”

“Then I have a murder case with no suspects.”

“That sounds slightly problematic.”

Angela sighed. “This is so fucked.”

“You’re telling me?”

The blonde looked at her, confused for a moment but ultimately didn’t say anything.

There was a growing knot in the pit of Sombra’s stomach as they approached her building. She couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, but she knew that something was very off about tonight. She grabbed Angela’s arm and pulled her closer to the buildings and farther out of public sight.

“What’s going…?”

“Shhh.” Sombra hushed her and tried to peek down the street.

There were black cars with tinted windows and men in suits surrounding her building.

“Who are those…?”

“Angela, shut the fuck up!”

There were too many to count now and they were all surrounding the building.

“Fuck,” She mumbled under her breath. “I don’t know who those  _ pendejos _ are.”

They were completely circling the building and she watched them force entry into her basement apartment. She shook her head angrily. She was lazy, she had gotten sloppy, and this seemed like only another indicator that she was getting to be too old for this. There were so many documents down there, documents that didn’t have back ups or copies, and of course there was the map.

There were tears rushing to her eyes, but she knew that Lumerico would’ve traced everything back to her. There was no one else renowned for stealing documents but her. The only problem is that she didn’t realize they knew where she was hiding out.

All the sudden there was an explosion from her building. They were too far from the blast to be hurt, but the pair ducked instinctively.

“Sombra,” Angela was shaking her shoulders, but she was frozen to the spot. “Sombra what’s going on, I swear to god if you led me into a trap…”

“That was my apartment.” She said quietly, sitting on the dead grass. “That was so fucking stupid of me I didn’t realize…”

“Who were those people?”

“That was Lumerico.”

“Get up, come on. We clearly can’t stay here.”

“Years of work, gone…” Her head was in her hands as she shook. “I’m so fucking stupid.”

She couldn’t find the presence to think or to move. This was a catastrophic loss of data, there was no remedying this and there was no getting back the priceless information. She was vaguely aware that she was being picked up, but barely registered getting dragged down the street and getting thrown in the backseat of a cab. After that, she didn’t remember anything else.

“Winston, this isn’t what you think.” She heard whispers and slowly opened her eyes. When did she fall asleep?

“Then what the hell is it?”

“Last night I....talked to her.”

“You talked to  _ Sombra _ ? Like an actual conversation?”

“Yeah, she saved my ass too but that’s not why you’re here.”

“Why  _ am _ I here?”

“Lumerico’s running a huge human trafficking ring.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“I’m not.”

Sombra stood up, her legs shaking under her. She had been asleep on a small couch and she looked around the room she was in. There was built in shelving along the back wall that was filled with books. There was a large radio in the shelves too. There were other smaller chairs around the room and tables with pictures and mugs.

“Angela?” She called out as she walked through the house and heard her quiet conversation. “Where am I?”

“Shit!” Her conversation stopped and she heard footsteps come down the hallway.

Her hair was disheveled and she looked like she was still in her sleepwear. There were dark circles under her eyes like she had been up all night. She was leaning against the wall in the hallway, trying to look casual but failing.

“Who’s Winston?” She asked and Angela sighed.

“I asked him to help look at the documents.”

“Are you kidding? Did you not listen to anything I said last night?”

“He’s a good guy I promise he’s not affiliated with anything we’re afraid of.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Sombra pushed past Angela and stormed into her kitchen. There was a young man sitting at the table with curly orange hair. His skin was stark white like a piece of paper and his eyes were an unsettling color of blue. He was wearing large rectangular glasses and when he looked up his eyes grew huge.

“So you’re Sombra?” He asked. He almost sounded breathless. “You don’t look like I would’ve expected.”

“Who the hell are you?” She shot back. “And what the fuck did you think I looked like?”

He stood up and extended his hand to her. “I’m Winston and I’m not sure, I guess I thought you’d look scarier.”

She shook it hesitantly. “Don’t push your luck.” She warned. “Why are you here?”

“If what these documents say is true then you’re going to need all the allies you can get.”

“Don’t have a lot of those.” She mumbled.

“Aren’t you working for Talon right now? I don’t see them on any of these documents.”

“I  _ was _ .” She corrected. “Reyes promised to fuck me up if I failed last night and I did so that bridge is burned I guess.”

“And I’ve been told you’re not our elusive serial killer.” he ran a hand through his hair and the curls parted like a small ocean.

“No.”

“You have any idea who is?”

“I didn’t even know there was a serial killer. I don’t run with that crowd.”

Angela walked into the kitchen and leaned against the entryway. “He’s been estranged from the department same as me. Definitely not part of this clusterfuck.” She said pointing to the files spread out on the table.

“Have you been up all night?” Sombra asked as she sat down. “I know there’s a lot here.”

“I believe you now.” Angela said. “There’s too much here for it to be faked.”

“I’m just not sure what to do from here.” Sombra admitted. “It’s too much for me to handle on my own which is a first. Not to mention there’s also a serial killer on the loose and Vishkar is still planning to target the power grid. I’ve lost years of work in one night and I accidentally burnt the bridge with the only mob power I thought I could trust.”

“Well, uh, that sucks.” Winston said awkwardly. “Sorry to hear that.”

“It was fucking Lumerico. I had a whole map that showed how all the major mob powers and law powers were connected. The thing was almost done too, I would’ve had a complete map of the happenings in this fucking city.”

“We can retrace it.” Angela said, setting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “These files were all the convincing I needed, we’re getting to the bottom of this.”

The whole experience was surreal for Sombra. She was living in Angela’s house, the detective who she thought hated her (and probably still did), she was absolutely estranged from the local crime syndicates, and for the first time in nearly a decade she felt like she had lost almost everything. All of the information she had worked so hard to obtain had gone up in smoke.

“I have to go in to the station soon.” Winston said as he stood up. “The sheer volume of information here is staggering.”

“It better be. I’ve been tracking it for years.”

“I mean good for you  _ I _ just don’t understand why.”

“I try my best not to be the worst human being possible.”

Winston squinted at her suspiciously before glancing behind her to look at Angela. His mouth was a crumpled line as he tried to decide what to think. It was apparent to Sombra, at least, that he was a detective at heart by the way the gears obviously turned in his head. 

“How can we be sure you won’t double cross us?” He asked.

“You can’t be sure, but logic should tell you that I won’t do that.”

He looked at Angela again and then stood up. “I guess I’ll be seeing more of you?”

“Guess you will.”

“Here, Winston, let me lead you out.” Angela led Winston out the front door and Sombra loitered awkwardly in the kitchen.

Angela reentered and she looked even more exhausted than Sombra had originally thought. “I also need to get ready for work.” She admitted and ran her hands through her already disastrous hair.

“Is there anything I can do?” Sombra found herself asking. “You know, to get this investigation started?”

“No…” Angela shook her head and looked vacantly out onto the backyard. “Not right now.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Angela shrugged. “I’ve been worse.” 

The other woman wandered upstairs and Sombra watched her, uncertain if she would simply fall asleep up there. She found herself drawn back to the room she had woken up in and picked up one of the many books off the shelves lining the room. There was a part of her that wondered what else Angela was hiding in this house.

She was trying to read the book in front of her, but she couldn’t concentrate. This was absolutely too much to try and think about. Where would she go after this? After Lumerico was gone she would have to leave Chicago and maybe start her reputation anew. There was no chance she would be accepted back into her old rings once the shit hit the fan.

“Pardon me if this is rude, but you seem incredibly anxious.” Sombra looked up from her chair and saw Angela standing in the entryway to the library. 

“Yeah destroying your life’s work in one night does that to you.”

“Why did you choose  _ that _ as your life’s work.”

“That’s confidential. Why are you suddenly deciding to trust me? How long have you been hunting me?”

“I don’t think you’re our serial killer.”

“Oh great you trust me only because I haven’t murdered someone.”

“You could’ve lied to me when I caught you.”

“And?”

“You asked for my help instead. At least to me that proves that this isn’t personal gain.”

“Not everything is about personal gain, Angela. Sometimes it’s just not personal.”

Sombra could feel her frustration rolling off of her.  _ She’s like a loaded gun, always ready to fire _ she thought as Angela clearly processed what she had said. “Then why did you turn to a life of crime? The whole point is personal gain.”

“Look, I’m good at getting into places I shouldn’t be. I’m good at something so I went all the way with it. It’s nothing more than that.”

“If you’re going to stay here you have to promise me something.” Angela sighed in frustration.

“What?”

“No snooping.”

“You take all the fun out of things.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Whatever, I won’t snoop.” 

“Come on, if we’re going to do this we have to have some sort of mutual trust.”

“I won’t snoop.”

“Okay. I have to go to work now, but we can look more at this shit when I get back. I’ll see what information I can get out of people at the station too.”

“Sounds good.”

The front door to Angela’s house slammed and she let out a frustrated sigh. Angela could really pull off a suit.

“You  _ have _ to stop doing that.” She whispered to herself. “You have got to stop looking at her like that.”

It was obvious from the way she acted that Angela was no idiot. She was smart as a whip and while she knew the information was in good hands she couldn’t help but worry and couldn’t help but be subtly attracted to her power and intelligence. Her house was filled with books of all kinds, an entire room was dedicated to medical books alone.

Was Gabe looking for her right now? She set down her book and began to slowly pace the house as she let her worries fill her head like poisoned water. What would he do if he found her? Why the hell did he have a curved knife? Most mob bosses preferred guns, they were so much more efficient at killing people.

Some of the upstairs rooms were locked and true to Angela’s request, she didn’t pick them. She deserved privacy in her own home. There was no true power in this information.

The house was older and in pristine condition. She wondered where Angela found the time to clean every crevice because there wasn’t a dust bunny to be seen. She was going to have to access her bank accounts and buy some new clothes at the least, she couldn’t keep wearing Angela’s.

One of the bedrooms was unlocked and Sombra stepped in. It was a small guest bedroom with a made bed tucked in a corner and a couple empty tables. It struck her that she was actually exhausted, both mentally and physically. Without thinking she walked over to the bed and let herself collapse on to it.

She was surprised she didn’t wake herself up via recurring nightmares. Instead she woke up to Angela gently shaking her shoulder and whispering that she brought food home for dinner. With her eyes half open and light spilling through the curtains she thought Angela almost lived up to the root of her name, angel.

“Are you okay?” She asked

“Sorry, just tired.” She was trying to snap out of her haze.

“It’s okay. There was another murder, same style as all the others.”

“And what would that style be?”

“Curved slash marks on the chest and abdomen. It’s the strangest thing.”

“That is really weird.”

“But I stopped and brought home some sandwiches.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be down in a second.”

Angela left and Sombra stood on shaky legs. She felt impossible butterflies swell in her stomach as she made her way downstairs. Winston was already starting a new chart in the dining room and she sat down across from his work.

“Volskaya. You missed Volskaya.” She said as she bit in to her sandwich.

“Where does Volskaya fit in to this?” He asked.

“Part of the trafficking ring and also peddles alcohol to the majority of the people on this chart.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, those Russians are big on vodka.”

Angela sat down next to her at the table. “She’s right about Volskaya.”

“I didn’t think she was lying.”

“I knew people who used to buy from them.” Angela commented.

After about three hours the map was mostly complete. It was at least complete enough to pass for what was once at Sombra’s house. It wasn’t as detailed or as clean, but it was a good start. Winston went home that night and politely said goodbye, but she could tell he still hesitated to be in her company.

“Want some wine?” Angela asked.

“You have wine?” Sombra sat up, suddenly interested. “What else are you hiding?”

Angela opted not to answer her second question. “Yes. I’m opening a bottle because I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“I won’t object.”

Angela poured two glasses of red wine and the pair sat down next to each other, looking at the map. “I bet yours was better.” She sipped her wine and sighed. For a moment her blue eyes aged decades beyond her years before Angela slowly let her eyes flutter shut and then open again.

“Three years instead of three hours.” Sombra shrugged. “It’s a better start than I would’ve gotten.”

“I can’t shake the feeling that this serial killer is somehow linked to all of this.”

“Mm,” She agreed. “This is all sorts of fucked, Angela. This is way more fucked than I thought it was.”

“I know these are knife wounds, but I just...I just can’t shake the feeling that the mob is behind it. You were the mob. What do you think?”

“You really think I was the mob still?”

“Well you worked with them.”

“I’m not the mob, Angela. I’m an opportunist, but I would never join the mob. There’s just no place for someone like me in legal work.”

“Why not?”

“I have my reasons.”

“I hope someday...I hope that I might find them out.”

Their eyes met and Sombra was surprised at how fast the wine had effected the other woman. The red wine stained her fair lips a much darker shade and she was trying not to stare before she ripped her gaze away.

“We should go to bed.”

“Yes.” The other woman quietly agreed.

They both walked up the stairs and went to their respective rooms and Sombra threw herself backwards on the bed. Her mind was muddled by the wine, but all she could think of was the dark red stained lips and that they were only across the hall.

The last girl she had been involved with was a long time ago. It was before she actively stopped running with Vishkar and she had been caught in the company’s crossfires. It was all but sheer luck that she hadn’t died, she had been moved back to India where their opium empire was growing. One morning she left and just never came back and it took a decent amount of file thievery to find out what had happened to her. She needed to know what had happened. At the time she wondered if it would have been better if she died instead of having the knowledge that yet another person had left her.

Crime was lonely. It was that simple.

She crawled under the heavy blankets on the bed and allowed them to surround her completely. She was desperately wishing that she wasn’t alone right now and that maybe there would be anyone that could tell her that things would be alright and that she would recover from all that had happened.

It was very early in the morning when she woke up, so early that it could still have been nighttime. The scream sounded again and this time Sombra was more alert, throwing herself out of bed. Had Guillermo found her? Had Gabe? They’d have no qualms about hurting Angela, someone they’d see as collateral anyways.

Her feet slipped on the floors and she burst into the hallway.

“Angela? Where are you?” Her breathing was shallow.

The screaming was coming from her room and Sombra threw the door open expecting to find Guillermo or Gabe towering over her. The room was apparently empty, but the blankets were kicked off of the bed and Angela was splayed on the bed and her limbs were thrashing. She felt momentarily guilty for breathing a sigh of relief that it was only a nightmare.

“Angela?” Sombra shook her shoulder and Angela’s eyes opened, but all she could see was the whites of her eyes. “Angela can you hear me?”

Her eyes closed again and her limbs thrashed again. Sombra shook her harder, calling her name and Angela’s eyes opened. Her blue eyes were filled with tears and Sombra could see her rapid heartbeat beating against the hollow of her neck.

“What happened?” She asked, looking around.

“I, uh, I think you had a nightmare.” The bedroom was almost completely dark. It was only illuminated by the street lights and the moon and it made Angela’s blonde hair glow. Sombra tried to fight her habit of slipping into the darkest corners of the room and held her ground in the doorway.

“Did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but are you okay?”  
Angela looked around the room like she was lost. “Could you stay here?” She asked suddenly. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Yeah,” She answered softly while nodding. “I can stay. I can stay here.”

Angela was sitting up in bed and Sombra dragged the blankets back onto the bed and pulled them up around her. Sombra crawled in next to her and Angela grabbed her forearm, dragging her closer. She could feel the warmth radiating off of Angela’s body and she was fighting the urge to move even closer.

“You’re the first person to stay here in a long time.” She mumbled.

“I’m not the ideal houseguest.”

“Why did you come in?”

“I was worried. I was worried that Gabe or Guillermo had found us. They’re after me, not you here.”

“Were you really worried?”

“Yeah, I was.”

“I think you’re a fine houseguest.”

Angela fell back asleep and Sombra looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep breath.  _ You’re cool, it’s cool, everything is fine _ she thought, trying desperately not to feel Angela’s insistent tug on her arm trying to pull her closer.

“Totally fine.” She whispered before falling asleep herself.

She woke up and the bed was empty. She panicked for a second before she realized that Angela was probably at work. She got up herself and got dressed in more of Angela clothes (they all smelled like soap and pine needles) before picking up the envelope of money she had left in the kitchen the night before. From there she hailed a cab in the center of the city and bought two more suits to replace the ones lost to Lumerico’s wrath.

Reluctantly she changed out of Angela’s clothes and into a form fitting suit jacket and matching pants. Angela was a good deal taller than her and all of her clothes had been loosely hanging off of her smaller frame. Where was she to go now? She had nothing to do for the most part other than avoid Akande and Amelie if she were to run into them.

She bought more tape and yarn and some notebooks to keep taking notes in. She walked around the market and brought flowers back and arranged them in a vase. She paced Angela’s house one more time before trying to pick up a book she was only vaguely interested in. Everything with her was a goddamn mess.

Then she sat in front of the map.

And all she could think about was Angela.

“Fuck,” She slammed her hand down on the table. “You’re not getting yourself anywhere like this!”

As if on cue, the front door opened. Although she wasn’t known to carry weapons, she had found a revolver in a kitchen drawer and grabbed it, and she started slowly pacing towards the front door. It was very possible someone saw her today while she was out.

“Sombra?” Angela called and she immediately relaxed, dropping the gun to her side.

“Hey.” She stepped out from behind the corner and Angela’s eyes immediately went to the gun in her hands.

“Where did you get that?”

“I knew it was in your kitchen drawer and I was worried someone saw me while I was out today and I’m sorry I’m just…I’m so paranoid.”

Angela sighed. “I got fired today.”

“What? Why?”

“They didn’t say. I think they knew I was on to them.” She shook her head. “This is some serious bullshit.”

“I’m sorry, that is bullshit.”

“Lucky for us, they don’t suspect Winston. He’s still on the case, but he’s not going to swing by for a while to avoid Jack’s suspicions.”

“Jack?”

“Our supervisor.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Angela threw herself down on the couch. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me? This is my fault.”

“Everything is such a fucking mess and I’m sorry about last night. God this is a mess.”

“It was a mess before you even laid eyes on all this. Again, not your fault.”

Angela looked at her, tears spill out of her blue eyes making them look almost transparent. “I think I need some wine.”

“ _ Cariño _ I don’t think you need wine right now.”

“I do.” She stood up and nodded, walking into the kitchen. “Prohibition can fucking suck it.”

“Angela…”

“Red or white?” She stood on her tiptoes and opened and cabinet, glancing at Sombra.

All she could think of was how her lips looked when they were stained with the red wine and against better judgement she answered. “Red.” There was a knot in her chest.

So many things were wrong right now. Angela got fired, the Chicago Police Department could be hot on their trail as they spoke, she was most definitely crushing on the detective even though by all means they should be mortal enemies, and there was still that serial killer to think about. So many things were wrong, but she could share a drink with Angela and pretend that everything they had done for the past week hadn’t gone to hell in a handbasket.

Angela set two glasses down from a cabinet that Sombra had always assumed was locked. They were a fine crystal of sorts, maybe a family heirloom, and Angela filled them with dark red liquid before smiling at her. It was an eerie smile because it looked like everything was okay and they were celebrating, but Sombra felt her entire life slowly receding like the waves on a beach.

“Cheers.” She deadpanned and held up her glass.

Sombra picked hers up and squinted at her. “To what?”

“We’re still here. Isn’t that something?”  
She chuckled. “Damn right it is.”

Angela’s lips stained after half of the first glass and after Sombra’s second glass of wine she couldn’t be bothered to try and look away. They moved to the couch in the room that Sombra had first woken up in with the bottle of wine on the floor between them, both of them slowly draining it.

Sombra shed her suit jacket and was lounging on the couch with her legs over Angela’s and laughing. She was telling stories from when she was in Europe during the war and it was obvious that she was avoiding the particularly depressing ones.

“So what about Fareeha?” Sombra asked. “That Egyptian you keep talking about. What happened to her?”

“She stayed.”

“What?”

“She stayed in Europe. Said she had bigger things to shoot for and bigger planes to fly.” Angela was gesturing emphatically and then poured herself another glass of wine. “She was a pilot.”

“Really? Didn’t know they were letting women get their license during the war.”

“I didn’t until I met her. She took me up there once you know.”

“In a plane?”

“Yeah.” Angela began gesturing again, mimicking the plane. The red wine sloshed out of the glass and splattered on Sombra’s red shirt and they both began to laugh. “I’m sorry.” Angela set the glass down, still laughing. “Let me help you with that.”

She didn’t quite realize that Angela was helping her unbutton her shirt until it was hanging open and Sombra realized that she had forgotten to put on an undershirt. She slipped the stained shirt off her shoulders and went to stand up to take it to the basement to be washed, but Angela caught her arm before she could stand. She was lounging backwards on the couch, shirtless, and Angela was hovering over her.

The blood rose to her face, her cheeks and ears burning. She was also acutely aware of the growing tension between her legs as Angela’s pale face flushed, too drunk to try and hide her eyes roaming her chest. Sombra was short of breath and her heartbeat was visibly racing, her chest pounding with each beat. She wanted to surge upwards and kiss her and even if that was the alcohol talking, she wanted it  _ so bad _ right in that very moment.

Angela leaned down as though to kiss her and just before she did common sense kicked in and Sombra rolled off the couch and stood up.

“I’m going to put this downstairs.” She picked up the stained shirt. “And then I’m going to bed.” Her voice was squeaky and breathless as she tried to get control of herself.

“Okay, I’ll clean up.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

She all but ran down the basement and threw the shirt into the washing machine. She didn’t even care if it actually got cleaned, she just needed to go upstairs and go to bed. She needed to pretend this entire thing didn’t happen. If she slept it off they would both forget that she was shirtless on the couch, and Angela’s hand rested just on the edge of her ribcage, and Angela tried to kiss her and if she had leaned just a  _ little _ farther Sombra would’ve kissed her back.

And then everything would have fallen apart.

Angela was nowhere to be found downstairs so Sombra went upstairs, changed into her pajamas, and then stared at the white ceiling of her bedroom. For the first time in a while it had occurred to her that she hadn’t been with anyone in a while and that the throbbing between her legs was slowly driving her crazy. She was praying to any deity, if they were listening, to make it go away.

She was forcing herself to drift off when she heard a noise. She sat bolt upright, assuming Angela had a nightmare again, or maybe her worst fears had come true. She swung herself out of bed and tiptoed across the hall and cracked the door to Angela’s room.

And suddenly she wished she hadn’t.

What she really wasn’t prepared to see was Angela getting herself off. Getting off while moaning her name. Across the hall. After almost kissing her.

Before she could process it she clapped a hand over her mouth and closed her eyes, moving away from the crack in the door and leaning against the hallway’s wall. She had her left hand covering her mouth and her right down her shorts and with her eyes screwed shut she could hear Angela,  _ god _ she could hear her, and she knew this was a bad idea.

Sombra knew this was a bad idea, she knew it wasn’t going to end well, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She was carefully working two fingers inside of herself, her skin buzzing, and Angela’s name starting to form on silenced lips. A small whimper escaped her as she heard the other woman come on the other side of the door and the quiet stream of profanities and her name leaving Angela’s lips as she came was enough to push her over the edge too, stars lighting up behind her eyes as she gasped and immediately bit her lip to silence herself. It was wrong, she shouldn’t have done it, but  _ fuck _ it was so good.

She exhaled, and withdrew her hand from her shorts.

“Is someone there?” Angela called.

_ Shit _ , she tiptoed back to her room and closed the door as quietly as she could. She laid down in bed and stared at the ceiling.

_ Angela was getting herself off _ , She couldn’t stop thinking about what she had seen.  _ Angela was getting herself off and she said my name _ . Another wave of arousal hit her again as she thought about it and she gave in and had her hand down her shorts again.

The next morning she almost forgot about it. She almost forget the entire thing happened, she preferred to think that maybe it had been a vivid dream, but she was reminded of it when she made her way into the kitchen.

Angela was sitting at the table reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee. Her hair was messy in an endearing way as usual and when Sombra sat across the table and poured herself a cup of coffee, she looked up.

“Were you up last night?” She asked and Sombra almost choked on her coffee.

“No I fell asleep quickly.” She lied. “Why? Did you hear something?”

Angela shrugged. “It was probably just the wind.”

They were silent for a few more minutes, save for Angela turning the pages of the newspaper. She wasn’t sure if it was awkward because Angela knew that she had heard her last night or if it was awkward because of the  _ almost-but-not-quite  _ kiss. Or was it awkward because Angela had clearly been staring at her chest when she had helped her take her shirt off? That was a mystery to Sombra at least.

Or maybe it wasn’t awkward and all this was in her head.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me last night.” Angela confessed. “It must’ve been the wine.”

_ You got into yourself last night _ , Sombra thought and then immediately began to chastise herself. “Don’t worry about it.” She really wanted this to blow over.

Luckily Winston came over that day and he seemed to diffuse some of the tension between Angela and Sombra. She still couldn’t tell if Angela suspected that she had heard her last night or if the tension was natural after the  _ incident _ on the couch. Winston seemed to pick up on whatever was happening because he had the good sense to casually seat himself between the two women or get them away from each other.

The trio ate dinner together and made a master list of every identifiable mob, police department, or other significant force mentioned in the Lumerico files.

“Another one was killed today.” Winston mentioned casually.

“Hm?” Angela looked up.

“Another slasher case.”

“Shit. That’s two in two days.” Sombra picked at her food.

“Our serial killer might have struck a pattern.” Winston suggested.

“What might that be?” Angela snorted. “I was trying to find one for  _ months _ .”

“He’s killed two women of apparent Mexican descent in two days. We can wait and see what his third kill is but maybe he’s found his stride.”

“Excuse me.” Sombra abruptly got up from the table and walked out onto the back porch.

It was raining and she listened to the sound of the ran hit the roof as she tried not to hyperventilate. The slashes were curved, now that was a coincidence, but now he seemed to be targeting people that looked like  _ her _ ? That was more than a coincidence.

“Fuck.” She whispered, letting tears drip down her cheeks and she leaned on the sill of the screen. “Fuck!” She kicked over a chair and fell to the ground, holding her face in her hands as a rumble of thunder passed over.

“Is everything okay?” Angela came out and sat down next to her.

“I don’t know.” She whispered. “I need Winston to keep me updated on the kills.”

“No one’s going to hurt you.” Angela cooed. “I promise.”

“God help us, Angela.” She shook her head. “God help us.”

Winston went home shortly after the pair came inside. The rain was coming down so hard that you couldn’t see anything but dull sheets of grey. Sombra took a shower and then decided she needed to wrap up her day. Tomorrow they could continue with the master list and getting to the bottom of everything, tomorrow things could be different…

As she laid in bed she could hear Angela again, but this time she didn’t get up. The thought of Angela writhing in bed at the thought of her...it was enough to drive her crazy. She was soaked through and there was no resistance as she pumped her fingers in and out, wishing they were the Swiss woman’s long and precise ones. Her left hand rolled her nipple between her thumb and her forefinger and she wished that Angela would just kiss her  _ everywhere _ . She was so lost in her fantasy that she didn’t notice how loud she had allowed herself to get. She came around her own fingers and as she caught her breath and stared at the ceiling instead of into Angela’s eyes, she knew she was fucked. 

“Why?” She whispered. “I’m so fucking stupid.”

Her body was still buzzing when she fell asleep, entirely too distraught and exhausted to do anything more about it. She did the same thing she did every morning, she went downstairs and sat across from Angela and drank her morning coffee. She didn’t say anything knowing that Angela sometimes wasn’t the most receptive in the morning.

“You’re awful loud for a shadow.” Angela said quietly and the majority of the sentence was lost on Sombra.

“What?” She looked up. “I didn’t hear you, sorry.”

“Never mind.” Angela took a sip of coffee and then pensively looked out the window. “The rain hasn’t let up.”

“No it hasn’t.” She wasn’t looking at the rain though, she was looking at Angela’s perfect jawline and she was thinking about the fact that she wanted to kiss a line along it and leave a hickey on her neck.

“Where’d you go?” Angela snapped her out of the daydream.

“Sorry, just zoned out.” Sombra shook her head and closed her eyes. “I’ve been distracted lately.”

“I don’t think Winston’s coming today.” She sighed. “And I don’t feel like working.”

“Neither do I.”

“We could share stories.”

Sombra smiled. “Maybe.”

She changed into her signature suit and found herself sitting on the couch reading a book about how planes worked and idly smoking a cigarette. Most of it was lost on her, but she found it fascinating nonetheless. Angela joined her shortly after and the pair read in silence for an hour or so, occasionally exchanging useful bits of information about their reading material.

“Will you tell me how you came to be who you are?” Angela asked out of the blue.

She paused. “Only if you tell me how you came to be who you are.”

“That’s a fair deal. You go first.”

“No, you. I don’t want to give too much away.”

“Fine, I’ll start.” Angela put down her book and folded her hands on her lap. “I immigrated here when I was 16. The Zieglers went through Ellis Island in 1910 and came out on the other side in New York City. It was exactly as everyone had said it was and it was so much better than home at the time. My parents were both doctors, highly trained in their respective fields, but they weren’t paid a lot. We lived in the worse parts of the city and one day they were just caught in the crossfires.

“My parents were killed by the mob. They weren’t their targets, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. After they died I serviced as a medic in The War, which I told you about, and using the money I had made I moved to Chicago and joined the police force. I vowed that I would put a stop to these groups, these groups that took the lives of good and hardworking people. And now I’m fired for that exact reason. That’s my story.”

Sombra took a deep breath. “My parents were probably apart of the mob. I’ll start with that. I don’t remember coming to this country, although I know I wasn’t born here. My parents were killed when I was about 16 as well, although I’m not 100% sure. I couldn’t enlist in the war because I know I don’t have citizenship and I knew I could never make it on my own. I was always a nosy child so I started doing what I was best at, digging for information.

“I started simple, broke into some safes and stole money, but soon I found myself looking for more. I would break into mob headquarters and steal secrets and blackmail them to get what I wanted and soon I found that these organizations would line up around the block to hire me…”

There was a huge explosion and suddenly the power went out. There was a flash of lightning from outside and it briefly lit up the whole room. “What was that?” Angela asked.

“That was Vishkar’s attack on the city’s power source. The one that you distracted me from stopping.”

“What do we do?”

“Nothing we can do.” Sombra shrugged. “I missed my chance to stop it.”

“Continue?” Angela asked.

“There’s nothing more to say really.” She admitted. “I feel like we did the opposite though. Your parents were killed by organized crime so you sought to destroy them, my parents were killed by organized crime and I decided to ally with their power.”

She was very aware of Angela’s proximity to her. Angela grabbed her hand and pressed a cool metal disk into her palm. “Two sides of the same coin.” She had leaned in so that her lips were practically touching Sombra’s ear and her heartbeat raced. Not this again. She shouldn’t, she knew she shouldn’t want to pull her close and kiss her senseless, but she did want it she wanted it so fucking bad. “Did you hear me?” Angela asked.

“What?” Her voice was hoarse and her mind was blank.

“Two nights ago, did you hear me?” her voice was low and the words hitting her core directly.

“Yes.” She choked out.

“Because I heard you last night…” Angela’s hand started undoing the buttons on Sombra’s shirt and she pressed her open palm against the other woman’s exposed sternum. “It was so fucking hot.” She punctuated each word with a single pop of her buttons and a gasp escaped Sombra’s lips as she let her eyes close and Angela pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.

Angela cupped her face with both hands and she opened her eyes and looked straight into her clear blue eyes. There was a clap of thunder and then lightning illuminated the room and Angela surged forward to meet her lips and Sombra’s hands came up to tangle in perfect blonde hair as Angela pinned her down against the couch. Angela’s thigh found its way between her legs and unconsciously she started to grind against the pressure.

Her bra went next and then her shirt and jacket slipped off her shoulders and onto the floor. Sombra struggled to remove Angela’s blouse as she lowered her head to press a kiss to the valley between her breasts before wrapped her lips around one of her nipples, teasing her with her tongue.

“ _ Angela _ …” Her voice comes out strangled. “ _ Just like that _ …” whatever she intended to say was lost into an incoherent moan as Angela rocked her hips more insistently into her. She knows they should move upstairs, but she can’t fathom stopping her.

“Angela,” She whispers as the blonde moves up to kiss her again. “We…” She momentarily loses her train of thought as she sucked on her collarbone. “We should go upstairs.”

“Okay.” She whispered with a grin. Sombra pulled Angela’s shirt off and throws it on the floor and Angela picks the other woman up and she instinctively wraps her legs around her middle and kisses her again, slipping her tongue past her lips and feeling Angela respond in kind as Sombra tugs her ponytail loose and kisses her harder.

She feels like she’s in the clouds as Angela carries her back to her room and lays her down on the bed, pressing their bodies flush together. Sombra quickly unclasps her bra and throws it somewhere in the room before resuming kissing her, her hands roaming her newly exposed chest. She smiles into the kiss when she feels the vibrations of Angela moaning into her mouth.

Angela breaks the kiss first, kissing her way down her neck and her chest until she’s pressing hot and wet kisses to the band of skin just above where her pants begin. She undoes the buttons on her pants and pulls her pants and underwear down in one swift moment and kisses the junction of her hips and legs.

Her mind is hazy and she really just wants Angela to fuck her until she can’t remember her own name…

“Wait!” She gasps and Angela sits up.

“ _ Schätzli _ , what’s wrong?” She asks and takes her hands.

“Olivia Colomar.” She blurts out.

“What?”

“That’s my name.”

“Olivia.” She liked the way Angela said her name, the way it rolled off her lips with her accent. Angela leaned down, pressing a kiss to the area just under her ear before whispering, “Olivia,” as she pushed two long fingers deep into her.

Sombra gasped and her fingernails left long scratches on her back. She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips as Angela took her time, pulling all the way out before pushing back in. Her eyes were rolling back in her head as her thumb rolled tight circles on her clit as she whispered her name in her ear.

“ _ Angela… _ ” Her name came out slurred with a deep moan when she curled her fingers. “ _ Mierda no te detengas… _ ”

“Louder,” She hissed. “Say my name, Olivia.”

She was being absolutely wrecked by the gorgeous Swiss woman on top of her and her command opened the floodgates for her. Her body was wracked with spasms, her cries mixed with Angela’s name and absolute gibberish. Her whole vision went white and Angela didn’t slow down, her thumb more insistent against her clit and her thrusts shaking the bed.

“Angela…” She trailed off, another moan coming from her chest when she curled her fingers upwards.

“One more,  _ Schätzli _ , you can do it.” She whispered and Sombra didn’t even have the presence of mind to properly answer, a half formed whimper escaping her lips. She was sure she was going to die like this, under Angela’s body, the hot detective fucking her into the mattress. She was going to die completely blissed out and she had never been more sure of anything in her life. “ _ Mein Gott _ , I can feel you. You’re so tight, come for me Olivia.”

That sends her over the edge for the second time, Angela kissing her through it as her hips buck against her hand and her back arches off of the bed. Aftershocks wrack her body as she gasps for air and lays back against the mattress, letting her limbs completely relax against the surface.

“ _ Mierda _ , God I don’t have words.” She laughs. “Fuck, you’re so good at that.”

Angela leans down and kisses her and Sombra holds her in place, a hand clasped behind her neck and the other one working on the buttons of her pants until Angela helps her and wriggles out of them for her, throwing them carelessly across the room. She presses another hard kiss to her lips.

“What do you want?” She asks, gently teasing a nipple with her fingers. 

Angela’s eyes flutter closed and her mouth opens as if to answer, but it’s lost. “I don’t care just…” A wordless moan escapes her as she rolls her nipple a little harder.

“Just what?” She asks, kissing along her collarbone.

“Just…” She loses it again as Sombra bites down on the exposed skin of her collarbone, the pale skin now flushed red. “ _ Mein Gott _ if you want me answer you have to stop for a moment.”

“I want to make you work for it,  _ cariño _ .” She replies, lowering herself to pull an stiff nipple into her mouth. “Tell me.” She breathes against her already heated skin.

“Fuck me.” It’s to the point and she arches herself into Sombra’s mouth. “Fuck me, Olivia.”

“What were you thinking about when you were fucking yourself?” She whispers, her nails scratching her sides. “Because  _ dios Mío _ you were thinking about something.” Her voice is raspy from overuse as she pulls Angela closer to sit in her lap. “Fuck, Angela, you’re fucking soaked.” She’s practically dripping onto her thighs. Sombra leans up to kiss her neck. “What do you want?”

“I need you...inside.” She gasps as her fingers skim over her swollen clit. Sombra suspects she’s not going to last long like this and she keeps dragging it on by talking to her.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” She remarks, playing with her other nipple and her thighs were coated with another gush of wetness and she has to bite back a groan.

“Three fingers, fuck I think I was riding you…” Her eyes flutter close, she’s starting to get lost in her thoughts.

“Is that what you want?” She’s teasing her entrance and Angela is already keening for her with her forehead pressed into Sombra’s shoulder. 

“Yes,” She hisses out. “Please, yes.”

There’s no resistance as three of her fingers slide in, Angela’s fingers digging in to her back. “You’re not going to last long, are you?” She asks and Angela shakes her head, Sombra can already feel her muscles contracting around her.

She answers her with a whimper as she rocks herself against her fingers and she meets every rock with an equal thrust and the sounds Angela are making are extraordinary. Her breathing is coming out shallow. “One more, Olivia,  _ Mein Gott _ …” Whatever she intended to say after that is lost in a slur of German and loud moans as she easily slides in a fourth finger. “Yes, yes, yes, like  _ that _ .” She’s entirely lost in the way Angela feels around her fingers, her hips rhythmically rocking into hers and every time she says her name fire rushes back between her legs.

“I’ve got you.” She whispers and Angela nods, her movements becoming erratic. “Let go, I’ve got you.”

Her eyes fly open and a high shout escapes her lips as he body tremors against Sombra’s and her nails leave little half moons on her shoulder blades. “Olivia…” Her name is drawn out when she moans her name and it’s enough to send her over the edge as well, a small whimper escaping her lips as she falls back against the mattress, her body trembling and Angela’s weight falling on top of her.

“Did you just come?” Angela asks, brushing Sombra’s brown hair out of her eyes.

“Yeah, fuck, I wasn’t expecting that.”

Their eyes meet and they both can’t help but giggle as Sombra leans in and kisses her again. It’s out of hand too quickly again, hands wandering, hips locked together, and Angela’s teeth tugging at Sombra’s lower lip. Her thigh slides easily against her center and she gasps when she feels Sombra return the sentiment.

“Together.” Angela breathes and she nods and it’s not long until they’re both flung over the edge, holding onto each other in bed and laughing almost deliriously.

“I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.” Sombra jokes, finding her lips in the dark.

“It’s worth it.”

Sombra wakes up with her limbs completely tangled with Angela’s. The power is still out, her hair is a mess,  _ Angela’s _ hair is even worse, and the room smells like sex. She can’t help but smile at the fact that last night wasn’t a particularly detailed dream.

Angela stirs on top of her and kisses her shoulder. “Power still out?”

“Uh huh.”

“I can make something on the stove, it’s gas. Doesn’t need the electricity.”

“Do you want to get out of bed?”

“We can’t stay here all day.”

“Who says we can’t?”

“I do.”

Sombra puts on one of Angela’s oversized shirts and follows her downstairs. Trying to make any sort of breakfast was entirely useless, it started with a simple make out session and ended with Sombra sitting on the counter, Angela’s head between her legs and Sombra holding her head in place with her hand.

“You taste so fucking good.” She breathed and Sombra whimpered in response. 

“Later...fuck, I want to taste you later.”

Somewhere in the distance a door slammed, but neither of them heard it. Sombra came hard against her mouth with a shout, her hands digging into the edge of the counter to hold herself in place, Angela lapping at her with nowhere to be.

“Oh my god! Jesus Christ! Put some fucking pants on!” Winston yelled, looking away.

Sombra snapped out of it and fell off the counter and Angela couldn’t help but stifle a laugh as she wiped her mouth and turned around to look at her clearly mortified friend. Winston’s eyes were practically bugging out of their sockets as he turned around to face Angela angrily.

“What? Like I haven’t walked in on you and Athena?” Angela said.

“Is everyone decent?” He sounded more exasperated than anything else.

“Yes!” Sombra called from the kitchen.

Winston walked in with a scowl on his face as he threw a handful of files onto the kitchen table. He angrily dug through them a pulled out a picture. Angela was standing behind Sombra awkwardly and Sombra could see Winston trying not to make eye contact with either of them.

“There was another murder.” He pointed at the picture. “Mexican woman, same slasher style.”

“I know who the serial killer is.” Sombra blurted out and they both looked at her. “It’s Gabriel Reyes. It’s The Reaper.”

           “There’s no way it's The Reaper.” Winston shook his head.

           “Well first of all he’s fond of knives, so there’s the slasher part. Second he's got a vendetta against me, a Mexican woman, for crossing him so he's killing women who are like me to try and lure me out. It's ingenious if you think about it.”

“That  _ would  _ make sense…”

“Also, I have a question. Why did you think I was the serial killer for so long?” The thought jumped into her brain. “I know I don’t have any murder associated with me, at least not anything relevant…”

“What?” Angela and Winston said at the same time.

“Relevant?” Winston asked hesitantly.

“I’ve been framed for some shit and I’ve been associated with some armed robberies in the past. It’s not common or public knowledge, but since you guys are cops I thought you might have an inkling of what my past was like.”

“I thought it was you because of the stealthy nature. It wasn’t your calling card, we didn’t find your tag, but it was incredibly stealthy and it was definitely organized crime related. When I made my case theory, I was theorizing that you had moved on to something more profitable than information and blackmail.” Angela said. “Obviously, I was wrong and I started to suspect that I was wrong.”

“Angela,  _ nothing _ is more profitable than information. Information is life itself or at least where I come from. If I were to move from information to murder, there would be so much lost. I wouldn’t be able to move around the way I used to.”

“Well, I started to think about that. Which is why I followed you to Vishkar. I got an anonymous tip that you might be there that night. I theorized a couple things: if you were there, you weren’t the killer. If you weren’t the killer then you most likely wouldn’t attack me. If you were truly under my desk like I had suspected earlier that day then you weren’t the murderer because you were still stealing information.”

“The base of your argument relied on me being morally sound.” Sombra stated plainly. “While that is  _ exactly _ what happened, you took a huge risk especially knowing how  _ morally sound _ many of my acquaintances are.”

“That’s what I said!” Winston said suddenly. “I told her that argument was stupid and that she was dealing with an established criminal.”

Winston dug in his pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and Sombra took one and let Angela light it. It dangled from her front teeth and she took a drag, nodding thoughtfully.

“I  _ am _ an established criminal.” She said.

“Okay, well I theorized one more thing.” Angela also took a cigarette and lit it herself. “If you were under my desk, you were presented with every opportunity to announce your presence, and you were presented with every opportunity to harm me. The only reason I realized you were there was intuition. My files on you were gone and I simply sensed that something was off. It had to be you.”

“So you put your life at stake because I had the chance to hurt you and end your investigation, but didn’t?”

She shrugged. “I had a hunch that maybe you could lead me to the serial killer if you weren’t who I was looking for.”

“Who tipped you off that I was going to be at Vishkar?”

“An anonymous called going by the name  _ araña _ .” Winston said. “I was the one who got the call.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Sombra shook her head. “ _ Mierda _ ,” she cursed under her breath.

“Do you know who it was?”

“It was Amelie Lacroix.”

Winston and Angela froze and Winston’s eyes seemed to bug out of his head. “She’s married to the decorated millionaire and war hero, Pierre Lacroix. How would she know about  _ you _ ?” He asked.

“Do you want to know who she really is?” Sombra asked.

Both of them were completely silent for a moment before Angela slowly nodded. “I’m a disgraced ex-detective anyways.”

“She’s Widowmaker, you know the sniper with a bounty on her head internationally? I don’t know about Pierre, but I know who she works for.”

“And?” Winston asked.

“And what?”

“Is she with or against Lumerico?”

“Against, for sure.” Sombra nodded and Winston let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t know why she tipped you off, but don’t go around arresting her now.”

“Not if she’s on our side with this. I’d rather not have her shooting at me.” Angela conceded.

“So you’re just going to give up the chase on the most wanted sniper in the world right now?” Winston asked.

“It’s time to think big picture.” Angela sighed. “Big picture, we want Lumerico gone more than we want her gone.”

“I think I need some air.” Sombra said abruptly and made her way out onto the screened in porch on the back deck. The sky was grey and rain fell slowly as though it was reluctant to finish its journey.

The cold air was nipping at her exposed skin and she finished off her cigarette and let the butt drop on the porch. She was shaking as she put her hands down on the railing against the wall and took a deep breath. Gabriel of all people was killing women just to lure her out and he knew it would work.

“ _ Dio míos _ ,” She muttered and kicked over a watering can sitting there. “What the fuck?”

It felt like everything was falling apart. They knew Lumerico was up to something, but they didn’t know what and they had no means to stop it. The one power she thought she could align with was with Lumerico the entire time. Everything was going wrong.

“I have to kill Gabe.” She mumbled. “I have to kill him before he gives more information about me away.”

The door opened and she jumped and saw Angela walking onto the porch. “Winston got called in to the station.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

Sombra sat down on the floor of the porch and Angela sat down next to her and she watched Angela light another cigarette for herself. She wasn’t really in any hurry to speak, she knew what the next words would be. She had revealed too much of her past and Angela was going to tell her that everything was a mistake. Her heart turned at the thought of Angela telling her that it was all a mistake because as she watched Angela part her lips ever so slightly to take a breath and let grey wisps of smoke leave her mouth she knew that she was falling for her. She was falling for the brilliant and gorgeous detective next to her and she knew that she didn’t feel the same way.

“What was your motivation for all of this?” Angela asked suddenly, not looking at her. “I don’t know what to make of you.”

“I was pretty sure this would destroy what was left of my reputation in this city. I’m going to leave once we blow the lid on this.”

“Where would you go?”

She shrugged. “California, probably.”

“You know,” Angela started. “You have more guts than anyone I know. Not a lot of people would stake everything on something like this.”

“Yeah well,” Their eyes met. “I’m not a lot of people.”

Angela smiled and it looked like she was about to cry as she averted her eyes. “No, you’re not.” She murmured quietly.

“What are you going to do after all of this?”

“I don’t know.” Angela sighed and then looked at Sombra. “Could I come with you?”

“To California?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would you  _ want _ to?”

“There won’t be anything left here for me either. We could leave, we could leave together.”

“Is…” She couldn’t find the right words. “Is that what you want?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“I think it is.” Sombra could see in her eyes that she was afraid. She was afraid of running into the unknown after spending her entire side on the right side of the road. “I know I don’t want to stay here. I know that I…” She took a deep breath and pushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes. “I’d miss you.”

“Angela…”

The other woman shushed her and they both fell silent. Angela was hugging her knees to her chest and Sombra was scratching her nails against the damp wood on the deck. She was watching Angela out of the corner of her eye and she wanted to say what was on her mind. She wanted to tell her that she felt the same way, that for reasons she couldn’t explain, the thought of not having Angela in her life was too painful to properly comprehend.

Beyond the thought of not wanting to lose her, she knew what she had to do. She had one last bridge to cross and then burn and whatever that meant would end all of the crime and conspiracy flying around. She had to stop Gabe before he killed one more woman just to prove a point.

It was funny. She had never really seen Gabe as unhinged, but there was a first time for everything. He had to be working for the ring, but after the murders she suspected that he might actually be the one running it. The main problem was that there was truthfully a lot of profit in a business as illegal and immoral as human trafficking and there was always a chance that Gabe had gotten bored of simple drug deals and bounty hunting and had moved on to something more profitable.

“Do you have a plan?” Angela asked.

“No.” Sombra shook her head. “Everything just happened too fast for me to make one. If I hadn’t lost months of planning, maybe I’d have something more concrete.”

“I don’t know how we’re going do this.” She admitted. “It’s so much farther into the police department than I anticipated.”

“What  _ were _ you anticipating?”

“I thought maybe that there were people there I could trust…” She sighed and shook her head. “My supervisor Jack always seemed like he was on the straight and narrow, but he turned out to be in on it. There was another detective, Lena Oxton, and we’re still not sure about her. There are so many people where their allegiances aren’t clear. I was thinking about going to them for help, but the more information we get the more uncertain I am.”

“And now  _ I _ can’t leave the house for fear of getting shot up by either Gabe or Lumerico.”

“How did you do this for a living?” Angela asked and then threaded their fingers together.

“I’ve never been involved with anything close to this magnitude before. The reason I asked  _ you _ for help was because I just realized that it was so much bigger than I had originally thought.”

“I’m sorry it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.”

“It’s not your fault. I’d probably be dead if you hadn’t slowed me down in the Vishkar headquarters. I would’ve gone home and then they would have killed me or tried to get information out of me. At any rate, this whole thing seems like a catch-22. I’m just hoping to solve this one thing at a time.”

“Well what’s your thought process?”

“I want Gabe out of the way. We should take down Gabe and then we have one less person against us. Once Gabe is out of the way, it’ll send the message that I haven’t fled town, and that’ll draw Lumerico and Vishkar out of the little holes they’ve been hiding them. I think it’s going to come down to having to kill Guillermo Portero and Sanjay Korpal.”

“Killing them?”

Sombra sighed and then nodded. “There’s no guaranteed way to kill a snake unless you cut off its head. They won’t go to jail because the Chicago PD is in on it.”

“What about the corruption there? What about the corruption in the police departments and organized crime units around the world?”

“Well, we need to reveal the Chicago PD through the press. You or Winston could do that. Once all the documents are revealed, it’ll unravel the police departments around the country. As far as the other major players, they’ll deal with that internally. I know none of them have enough knowledge or control to assume leadership of the ring. Volskaya is the only local influence that I know of that could truly assume control of it, but every document I’ve seen has indicated that Katya Volskaya does not have a hand in the ring at all. Whoever is passing people through them definitely doesn’t have her influence.”

“Have you dedicated your entire life to knowledge about organized crime?”

“Accidentally. Volskaya is one of the only powers in the greater area that hasn’t contracted me. I’ve definitely got my fair share of information on them, but Katya has never needed dirt on other people.”

“I’ve actually looked into Katya Volskaya before.” Angela said. “An interesting case, for sure. She’s a Radcliffe graduate. She double majored in economics and business. She’s absolutely brilliant and what I can see of her operation is meticulously run.”

“Yeah, except there’s a cell of it that’s running human trafficking operations and she has no clue.”

“Well, beyond that.”

“Yeah she’s one person I never want to fuck with.”

“Russians are terrifying.”

“Yeah.” She laughed and Angela squeezed her hand. “I think I want to talk to Katya, though.”

“What?” Angela jumped in surprise and looked at her as though she had grown three heads. “You want to  _ talk _ to her?”

“I know that I blackmailed her in my early days…”

“You  _ what _ ?”

“Is that not common knowledge?”

“ _ No _ !”

“Okay, well when I was starting out doing what I do,” Sombra began explaining as Angela looked increasingly concerned. “I stole some information from her and then blackmailed her. She complied, but told me if I ever showed my face anywhere near her operations she’d shoot me up.”

“And you want to go talk to her?”

“I think she’d be on our side. She’s definitely not apart of the ring, so at the very worst maybe she can dismantle her sector of it from the inside out. It makes our job so much cleaner and so much easier.”

“Olivia, you can’t…”

“Why not? If we don’t take risks here then the whole thing falls apart.”

“You want to go talk to someone who wants you dead!”

“Angela?”

“Yes?”

“There isn’t a person in this city who doesn’t want me dead.”

She watched Angela struggle to find a response to what she said. “I…” The words were getting stuck in the back of her throat. “I don’t want you dead.”

She smiled. “That means a lot, especially considering at one point you did.”

“Do you really think talking to Katya will accomplish anything?”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I had something to gain.”

“Ever the opportunist.”

“I’m going to get dressed and then I’m going to go.”

“How are you going to get in?”

She shrugged. “I’m just going to walk in. Last time she saw me in person was about a decade ago, no one working there would recognize me. I’ll just head up to Katya’s office and wait.”

“Wait not to get shot in the face?”

“I think she’ll hear me out.”

She stood up to walk into the house and Angela grabbed her arm. She spun around and Angela pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Be careful.” She whispered. “There’s more we have to figure out.”

“I really believe that Katya is part of it.” Sombra pressed her forehead to Angela’s and took a deep breath. “I’ll be back tonight.”

“Hopefully with good news.”

“Yes, that’s the idea.” She didn’t know why she was still whispering, but she brought her hands up to cup Angela’s face. “We’re going to do this.”

“I believe you.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Angela kissed her again and she smiled, slowly backing away. “I have to get dressed now. No use confronting a bunch of Russian criminals in pajamas.”

“I say there’s no use in confronting Russian criminals at all.” Angela teased.

“You know that’s not how my line of work goes.”

Angela didn’t follow her inside and there was apart of her that was grateful. She didn’t want Angela to see how nervous she really was to confront Katya. She knew the woman, she knew that she was brilliant and she was cunning, and that she was never indecisive about her actions. In more ways than one, they were not dissimilar people, and that virtue alone almost got Sombra killed the first time around.

She had been sitting in her blackmailing business for a little less than a year. She had successfully blackmailed two banks over questionable security and she had tackled a small band of Australians who were looking to start an organized crime ring of their own and she felt like she could take on the world. The Volskaya family wasn’t as powerful at the time and Katya had recently assumed power over her dead father and Sombra thought she could take on the powerful Russian family at a time of weakness.

Between the anti-Russian sentiments in the area during wartime and the shift in leadership, it was the perfect opportunity. She had practically walked into their stronghold, stolen important financial documents, and walked out. Two days later she made a telephone call to Katya.

“Sombra, I see you’ve gotten into my files.” She hadn’t even said hello and Katya had already called her out.

“I do have your files,” Katya had caught her off guard, but she was still trying to play it cool. “Do you want them back?”

“I do not stand for extortion.” Her Russian accent was still heavy. 

“But look at the predicament you’re in…”

“Come back to my office, details can be arranged there.”

“When should I come?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

The line clicked dead and Sombra didn’t see any of the red flags at the time. She was too green to see the obvious trap waiting for her. She waltzed back in to Volskaya headquarters with the files in a bag and made her way up towards Katya’s office. She was fully expecting to strike a deal and give the files back.

The second she opened the door she had a gun pointed at her forehead.

“The files, now.” Katya was holding the gun and she froze.

“They’re…” She was trying to find her words. “They’re in the bag.” She squeaked out.

Katya pulled the gun away and she was trying to think of a way to salvage the situation as she went to open her bag.

“Don’t even think about it.” Katya pointed the gun back at her. “I know your kind. You’re in over your head, kid.”

Sombra took out the files and handed them back to her. “You don’t know me.” She stood back up and Katya put the gun away and motioned for her to sit in a chair across from her desk. Katya sat behind the desk and carefully stashed the handgun in the top desk drawer before folding her hands on top of the table.

“You’re gaining a reputation.” She stated plainly. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a severe bun. “It’d be a shame if something happened, you are very smart and you are very observant.”

“I’m not in this for the killing.” Sombra said. 

“I can tell you don’t carry weapons.”

“You can?”

“Your stance is naturally defensive and you recoiled from my gun like you’ve never stared down a barrel before.”

“I’ve never found a good enough reason to put my life on the line.”

“If you value your life so, I suggest you listen to what I’m about to say.” Katya took a breath and looked down at her nails. “If you ever fuck with me again, if you ever steal any of my files again, or if I ever catch you in this building again you  _ will _ be playing Russian roulette where all the chambers are loaded and as you stare down the barrel of a gun you will realize it will be the last thing you ever see. Have I made myself clear?” She asked. She hadn’t raised her voice once and how collected she was, was unnerving.

“Very.” Sombra was surprised when words came out of her mouth at all.

“I would hate to kill you so soon,” Katya mused. “So I suggest you never come near me again.”

“I would hate to die so soon.”

“Then I suggest you get out of my office and never come back.”

The memory haunted her as the cab pulled up at the front of Volskaya’s headquarters. Katya was older, wiser, and more powerful than ever now. She knew that if she gave the other woman the chance that she would kill her on sight. She thanked the cab driver and held her breath as she stood in front of the doors.

If she was religious, she would’ve made the sign of the cross, but she wasn’t so she tried to steel her nerves by taking a few more deep breaths before walking into the lobby. No one stopped her on the way in so she began to cautiously make her way to the stairs. They were empty and she walked to the top floor, holding her breath the whole time.

The top floor was empty and she walked towards Katya’s office, her arms not swinging, and her stride stiff as a board. When she reached for the door handle, she found that it felt like she was moving in slow motion, and somehow found the strength to open the door. Her heart was hammering and her stomach was quaking and it was all for nothing because the office was empty.

She let herself in and closed the door behind her and then sat on the desk, facing the door. She crossed one leg over the other and placed her hands on the desk and then waited. There was a nagging worry that Katya wouldn’t show up, but she was proven wrong only a few moments later when the door swung open.

The Russian was older now, there were grey streaks in her brown hair, and her grey eyes seemed older. The second she laid eyes on Sombra sitting on her desk, she pulled out her gun and pointed it at her.

“Katya!” She yelled.

“Still scared of guns, hm?” She approached her slowly as if stalking prey.

“Katya, this is important!”

“Did you steal more documents, hm?” There was a dangerous edge to her voice. “Guess I’ll find out after you’re…”  
“Katya, I didn’t steal anything!”

“Sombra, I thought we agreed not to lie to each other.” Her voice was almost a purr now and Sombra was beginning to see her life flash before her eyes.

“Katya, this is not about documents and I’m not blackmailing you. I need to talk to you, person to person, there is a lot on the line and it’s too much to try and explain while you’re pointing a gun at me!”

“Why are you here if you didn’t steal anything?” She was beginning to lower her guard, but Sombra’s heart still pounded in her chest so heavily that she was sure that Katya could see it.

“Why would I be here if I did? I haven’t shown my face here for nearly ten years, do you think that anything less than an absolute emergency would drive me here? I’ve found something I’m willing to put my life on the line for and that’s why I’m here.”

“Get off my desk.” She commanded and Sombra jumped off and Katya walked around and sat in the chair behind the desk, placing the gun on the counter. Sombra sat in the chair across from her, nervously fidgeting. “I am going to hear you out. If it sounds like bullshit then I  will make good on my promise.”

“Lumerico is running a human trafficking ring.”

Katya’s eyebrows rose. “You cannot be serious.”

“I don’t think you’re in on it.”

“That is not the business I deal in and you know it.”

“That’s what I thought and that’s why I’m here. I have something to show you.” She reached into the pocket inside her suit jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper which she unfolded and slid across the desk. “These are Lumerico’s records on what are presumably people moved.”  
“This is doctored.” She said suddenly, reaching for the gun. “Do not toy with me Sombra…”

“It’s not doctored and this isn’t what you think! There are people inside your operation moving people without your knowledge. Your name is nowhere on these documents so the best I’ve been able to assume is there are people within your operations doing things without your knowledge.”

“Make your point.”

“I’m trying to take Lumerico down. My biggest concern is that if Lumerico and Vishkar fall, then they will turn to you to take over. I want you to dismantle whatever cells are in your operation and I don’t want you to cooperate with Lumerico.”

“Are you asking me to cooperate with you?”

“No. All I’m asking is that you don’t further whatever is happening.”  
She sighed and then put the gun in her desk. Sombra released the breath she didn’t realize that she had been holding. Katya folded her hands on her desk and then looked at her and she felt like she was looking through her soul.

“I’ll do you one better,” Katya said and Sombra felt her heart starting to race. “I’m going to help you. What kind of help do you have?”

“I’m working with two detectives, well one ex-detective and one actual detective. The ring is at least national, but I suspect that it’s larger and that I can only see the tip of the iceberg.”

“I knew you were a smart girl,” she mused. “That is almost always the case in situations like these. There is almost no possibility that you are seeing the entire story and I am glad that you recognize that. Who do you know is in on the ring?”

“Lumerico, Vishkar, the Chicago Police Department, and a couple other names I recognize but don’t know where they’re basing out of.”

“Were the Shimadas there? How about Gabriel?”

“No, at least not from what I could see. Gabriel is another problem entirely right now, but I can’t see any active relations.”

“Good,” She nodded. “You were right to ask for my help.”

“I’m glad that my instincts were right.”

“I am glad that I didn’t kill you all those years ago. I knew there was something in your future, but I didn’t quite see what,” She paused. “What do you have to gain from this?”

“Nothing. It’s going to destroy my reputation in this city and I’ll probably have to leave once it’s all said and done to avoid being hunted like a deer.”

“I find it hard to believe that you’re not being motivated by money or power.”

“Like I said, I found something worth putting my life on the line for.”

They chatted for a few more hours and the more Sombra spoke to the other woman, the more convinced she was that in another life she could’ve been Katya. She was clever and also observant and she had been suspicious of operations happening behind her back and was happy to have confirmation once and for all.

“You said that Gabe was a wild card.” It was less of a question and more of a statement.

“It looks like he’s a serial killer. I accidentally crossed him and he started murdering people who looked like me to draw me out. It’s pretty genius.”

“That does not sound like Gabe’s style.” She commented. “I think you should talk to him.”

“You do?”

“I do not think he is the one killing people.”

“You know…” She sighed. “That did seem pretty strange.”

“Confront him. If he’s truly the killer, then kill him first.” Katya shrugged. “That’s assuming that you finally learned how to use a gun.”

“I’ve always known how to use a gun.”

“Then now is your time to prove it.” She wrote down something more on a notepad. “Do you need a ride home?”

“I can get one myself. I’d like to preserve my anonymity.”

She smiled. “It’s a wonder that I have never worked with you before.”

“It’s not if you consider the severity of your threats last time we ran into each other.”

Katya smiled. “I will be in touch, Sombra.”

“Thank you.”

She took a cab back a block away from Angela’s house and walked the rest of the way. The door was locked and she knocked and heard shuffling from inside the house and the sound of locks being undone in succession.

Angela opened the door, pulled her inside, and hugged her. She was taken off guard for a moment and then relaxed into the embrace, hugging her back.

“I was worried,  _ liebling _ .” She whispered. “You were gone a while.”

“Katya isn’t just going to dismantle whatever cell is in her operations, she’s going to help us.”

“You’re kidding!”

“I’m  _ not _ ! I mean she almost shot me, but she definitely came around.”

“Did she say anything about Gabe?” Angela was relocking the front door. 

“She said that it sounds out of character for him and that I should confront him.”

Angela frowned and a knot formed in Sombra’s stomach. “Are you?”

The knot grew. “No.” She lied. She knew what she was going to do and she didn’t want to wreck what was probably her last night with Angela with the possibility that she could die tomorrow.

“Good, you don’t need to figure this out on your own.” She squeezed her hands reassuringly. “I was able to get the stove up and running and make some soup.”

“That sounds great.”

Angela kissed her again and she wanted to forget about the soup, but she knew that she had to eat. The meeting with Katya had taken a lot out of her and she hadn’t realize how exhausted or hungry she was.

“We can getting working on more information to give Katya tomorrow.” Angela said. “We need to get her up to speed.”

“Angela?”

“Yes?”

“I  _ really _ don’t want to talk about Katya right now.”

Angela smiled. “Too much for one day?”

“Definitely.”

Angela reached across the table and Sombra laced her fingers with Angela’s. She couldn’t seem to help the way her heart fluttered whenever she looked at her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Angela was someone special and that it was unlikely she would ever get the chance to be this close to someone this incredible ever again. Her heart twisted at the thought of leaving and never coming back, of never seeing her again.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just nervous, that’s all.” 

“I know the feeling, there’s a lot going on.”

“Can we not think about it? At least not for tonight?” She asked and she knew she was bargaining with herself. The road ahead was about to get long and hard.

Angela took both empty bowls and put them in the sink. “Olivia?” She looked over and she raised her eyebrows.

“Yes?”

“What do you want to do?” 

It was a loaded question, one with an impossible number of meanings. There were so many ways to interpret the question. There were so many things she wanted in that moment, she wanted the whole investigation to be over but then she wouldn’t have met Angela on friendlier terms and she wouldn’t be wishing that she could curl up in her bed with her and never leave.

“I want to be with you.” She answered, finally. There were so many answers to that question and maybe a few weeks or months ago she would’ve answer differently. She would’ve asked for wealth and security or freedom from her life of crime, but at this very moment all she could think about was staying with Angela.

It was a double edged sword because it pulled at her when she thought about what she was planning to do next. She was going to leave and confront Gabe like Katya had suggested. She was going to do something so irreversibly stupid because she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone doing it for her. She was going to end whatever was happening with Gabe on her terms and no one else’s and then if it didn’t go her way, at least Katya and Angela could pick up where she left off and end Lumerico.

There was a part of her that always knew that it would come to this. There was a part of her that knew that the life she was leading only lead down one path and it would be lonely and relatively short. There was no life expectancy in it unless you were higher up in the hierarchy anyways. 

Angela was cleaning the dishes the dishes, her blonde hair floating into her blue eyes, and she glanced over at Sombra who was frozen to the spot. She knew the life expectancy was short, but she hadn’t expected a brilliant Swiss detective to weasel her way into her master plans and into her heart. She knew the life expectancy was short, but she wasn’t expecting to fall in love.

“Are you okay?” Angela asked.

“Yeah.” The words were caught in Sombra’s throat as Angela walked over and took her hands. 

“Are you sure?”

“I think so.” 

Angela leaned in and kissed her and she was ready to burst into tears. Everything was too overwhelming for her, but she gave into the wave of emotions that felt like it was drowning her. It was more than she could remember feeling in a long time and there was a thought at the back of her brain nagging her, telling her that she had never felt this much  _ ever _ .

“I love you.” It slipped out of her and Angela gently touched her face, tilting her so that their eyes met.

“I love you too.”

Sombra sucked in a deep breath and kissed her again, threading her fingers in Angela’s long hair and Angela guided her upstairs.

_ I would like to come back alive _ , she thought as they made their way up the stairs,  _ if anyone is listening, I would like to make it back alive _ .

They lost their clothes somewhere in the hallway and Sombra found herself reluctant to let go of Angela on their way there. The prospect of tomorrow terrified her, it terrified her because she knew there was a good chance she wouldn’t come out on the other side of the encounter, and she thought maybe if she didn’t let go that everything would turn out alright.

She found herself straddling Angela’s waist, clinging onto her with everything she had as the blonde slowly worked two fingers inside of her as a stream of obscenities left her mouth. She came with Angela whispering her name in her ear with another hand teasing her breasts and she stayed there for a while with her arms around Angela’s neck, shaking.

Later that night in Angela’s arms she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.

The clock read five in the morning when Sombra slipped out of bed and got dressed. There was no light and the power was still out and she found herself hailing a cab in the darkness. As the cab drove off she glanced back at Angela’s house and let a single tear fall down her cheek

She was making a terrible decision, but at least it was hers to make. The cab dropped her off in the same place it had last week and she stepped out and breathed in the cool morning air, her right hand resting gently over the revolver tucked in her front pocket. There was a pain in her chest that she couldn’t ignore and a throbbing behind her eyes.

The rundown house Gabe was hiding out in loomed on the edge of the street and she wasted no time as she cut through lawns and made it to the iron door. It looked out of place in the daylight and it looked out of place in the darkness.

She pounded on the door. “I know you’re there, Gabe!” She pounded the door again. “You open this door right now, Gabriel Reyes!”

The door swung open and Gabe was revealed in his pajamas holding a double barrel shotgun. Sombra pulled the revolver and pointed it at him, her hands shaking.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you.” He said.

“I could ask you the same thing. I know what you did.” She was trying to sound more intimidating than she truly was.

“What  _ I _ did?” He laughed. “Let’s talk about what you did.”

“Cut the shit, I know you killed those women to get to me.”

“Fucking hell, Sombra. Do I look like the kind of person who kills people to send a message.”

She glanced at the shotgun in his hands.

“I don’t!” He shouted. “Do you know who does?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Lumerico! Vishkar! The fucking police department!”

“No, I know you killed those women to get to me.” Her voice cracked as her uncertainty showed. “You wanted to draw me out because you  _ knew _ I wouldn’t stand for that kind of senseless murder!”

“What was your job. When I got angry at you because you were doing something else, what was your other job?”

“I was stealing documents from Lumerico.”

“Who was paying you?”

“No one.”  
He looked around for a moment. She could see the gears in his mind turning when he finally spoke. “Put the gun away and come inside.” He growled.

“Not until you put yours away.”

He stepped inside and came back to the doorway empty handed. “Put it away.”

She hastily shoved it in her front pocket and followed him inside and back towards his office. He sat down in his leather office chair and she sat across from the desk, watching intently as he pulled out the same curved knife he had threatened her with. There was a lump in her throat when she saw it and wondered why he had decided to take it out.

“What were you stealing from Lumerico?”

“I suspected a human trafficking ring. I was looking to steal documents.”

“And I suspected you were working for the ring.”

“I thought you were too.”

“No.” He paused. “In all of your research did you find out that Sanjay Korpal and Guillermo Portero are the same person?”

“What?”

“Sanjay Korpal isn’t real. Neither is Vishkar, really. Vishkar and Lumerico are the same.”

“That doesn’t make sense…”

“Sure it does. It draws everyone’s attention away from Lumerico when Vishkar gets into fights.” He shook his head. “I figured this out too late.”

“You’re not explaining things clearly.”

“The attack on the power plant was so they could draw attention away from the fact that Lumerico trucks have been driving around all the time. They’re trying to move god knows how many people. They also suspected you were on to them and began those murders to draw you out, which worked, but they don’t know that.”

“So Lumerico has been the serial killer this whole time?”

“All those people who they killed were on the verge of leaking their secrets with the exception of the women used to draw you out of hiding. I’ve been able to get information on the inner circle and they couldn’t seem to find you. A cab driver tailed you to your place of residence and tipped off Lumerico. That’s how they found you the first time.” He paused and awkwardly put his hands together. “You were better than I thought you were. I didn’t realize how untraceable you truly were until I caught wind of Lumerico asking around if anyone had seen you.”

“What did you tell them when they asked you?”

“Well I realized if you were working for them then they wouldn’t be asking, so I said that I had never seen you before in my life and had never contracted you.”

“How long have you known that Lumerico and Vishkar are really the same?”

“I knew before I contracted you.”

“Then why contract me if you knew Vishkar wasn’t real?”

“First, I wanted that information on the power attack. I thought if you didn’t take anything or if you ran, you were working with them.”

“So when I disappeared you thought that I was working with them?”

“Up until Lumerico started asking every mob in the area if they had seen you or contracted you recently. After they asked I knew that you had either disappeared in self preservation or you were actively conspiring against them.” 

“What about the knife?”

He handed the knife to her and it was suspiciously light in her hands. “Fake.” She whispered, turning it around in fascination. “It’s very realistic.”

“I know you’re working with those two detectives.”

“And?”

“I can leak everything to the press.”

“Really?” She laughed. “God, we were wondering how the hell we were going to do that.”

“There is a catch, though.”

“Name it, we don’t have the firepower to bring them down.” She shook her head. “I was stupid for ever thinking we did.”

“It’d mean revealing you.”

The words sank in slowly. “What does that mean?”

“Everything about you. Except your real name, which apparently no one knows. There’s a lot of information on you about your past and who you’ve crossed that would get released. We have to move quickly or they’re going to get away with it.”

“Can you give me time to get out?”

He shrugged. “Depends on how fast you can get out.”

“Gabe, I can’t stay here if I’m revealed. I’ve burned too many bridges this time.”

“You’ve burnt it down for the right reasons.” He said. “You’re more honorable than most.”

“It’s just…”

“Angela Ziegler’s here.”

“Yeah.”

There were silent for a few moments. “I already withdrew the money from your account.” He slid an envelope across the table towards her.

“How?”

“You’re not the only one with connections.”

She covered her mouth with her hand and took a couple of deep breaths. There were silent tears streaking down her face. Tears of cathartic relief and tears filled with pain from the knowledge of what had to be done. “I need a pad and pen and I need you to promise to deliver this. I’ll take the money and I’ll be on the first train to California.” She said finally, looking The Reaper in the eye for the last time.

He slid her the pad and pen and she stared at it for a minute, her hands shaking violently. When she did write, her handwriting was messy and jagged.

_ TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. COME AND FIND ME. _

She stood up, took the money, and left without another word.

* * *

“You’re never going to find a husband with your hair done up like that.” Christine remarked as she sipped on her cup of water.

“What if I don’t care about that?” Sombra tried her best not to roll her eyes.

“You want to work as a telephone operator for the rest of your life?”

Sombra  _ loved _ this impromptu conversations by the water cooler. “No, I’m most certainly not working here for the rest of my life.”

“Then maybe you should find a husband.”

“Christine…”

“What the hell possessed you to shave half your head and then dye what was left purple, anyways?”

“Christine, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but why the fuck do you even care?”

“You’re incredibly odd, Carmen.”

Christine walked away without another word and Sombra leaned her head against the wall and tried to take deep breaths. This telephone operating job might be the end of her. She missed Angela, she missed not wearing skirts, she missed Chicago, but the worst part had to be that whenever she found herself with a moment alone all she could think of was Angela. She had just up and disappeared without so much as a goodbye and the thought kept wrenching her heart.

“We’re not paying you to talk!” The phone company’s manager was entirely insufferable and she rolled her eyes as she made her way back to her seat and he said something to her that she didn’t catch.

“Did you hear me?” He asked.

“Pardon?” 

“Your hair is in violation of the company dress code.”

“That’s my bad, I guess. Nothing I can do now.” She shrugged and he was trying not to fume on the floor.

“Carmen if you keep pushing the rules…”

“You’ll fire me?”

“Exactly.”

_ It’d be a damn blessing if you did _ she thought bitterly to herself. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

“There won’t be a next time.” He warned and she had to fight back another eye roll.

“Noted.”

She sat back down at her chair and stared at the wall full of holes in front of her. In theory, this is what she liked. She liked to see how everything worked and be in the finer workings of things. She liked being able to pull out the wires and move them around the board, it gave her the thrill that she had always gotten from her work in Chicago - the thrill of knowing something you’re not supposed to.

Her line rang and she answered it, gearing up with her customer service voice. “Pacific Bell, how may I help you?”

“Connect me to Olivia Colomar.” It was a woman’s voice and a shudder ran down her spine. It sounded so much like Angela, but anyone could’ve been imitating her just to get information.

“I need the county of this person’s residence.” She was trying to keep her voice level.

“Fuck,” The voice on the other end of the phone mumbled. “Fucking hell I forgot you need that I’m sorry...I…” The woman was sputtering out words and Sombra was growing more and more convinced it was Angela.

“Whoever this Olivia person is,” She grimaced as she spoke. “Did she leave an address?”

“No, but…”

“Did she leave a note?” There were tears brimming in her eyes.

“It’s not an address…” Angela’s voice was wavering, she was on the verge of crying.

“What is it?”

She sighed. “She said she wants me to come and find her,” Her voice broke and Sombra could hear her crying. “But I guess not.”

“Wait!” She rushed to say it and then glanced around to make sure her manager hadn’t heard. “Carmen García,” She whispered and she had no idea what possessed her. This could be a trap, but she had to take this risk. “Los Angeles County.”

“Which side are you?” Angela’s voice was a strangled whisper, she could hear the other woman fighting off tears.

“The side of the same coin.”

The line went dead and tears rushed to her eyes. She took her headset off and without another word walked out of the Pacific Bell Company, not bothering to look behind her. Her hands were shaking violently as she took the long way home and let the tears spill over and down her cheeks.

She had refused to let herself cry for the few months she had been here. There was no use in continuing to hurt when there was nothing to be done, but now there was something impossibly close and impossibly far all at the same time. If Angela showed up then things would be different and if it was someone looking to kill her, they’d put her out of her misery working for customer service in an increasingly hostile world.

Admittedly, she didn’t live in the best area of the city and as she cut through the streets she now knew by heart she watched A-List celebrities make their way into less than desirable places. If only she cared enough to follow them and find the means to blackmail them she could start the same way she had in Chicago. No matter what, she knew that she was not going back to working with organized crime.

She let herself into her bare apartment and fell asleep on her bed, fully clothed. There was no chance that she still had a job and she had nowhere to be tomorrow. Maybe she would go out and restock her wardrobe to look closer to what it had always been. Maybe she’d just sit and stare at the door until she became a skeleton or Angela showed up, whichever one happened first.

When she woke up, she was convinced the call had been a hallucination. There was no way it was real. There was no way that Angela was  _ actually  _ looking for her. It didn’t matter now, anyways.

She hailed a cab and took it to a tailor in a nicer part of the city and had two suits made for pick up later that day. Then she invested in a camera and secure filing cabinets as well as some new black clothing. If she was going to quit her legitimate job, she might as well go back to doing what she was good at.

The last thing she bought was a bottle of wine from a fix she knew at a local speakeasy. The cab driver was gracious enough to help her with her filing cabinets and she paid him extra and told him to keep it after he set them up in her apartment. She changed into one of her suits and took a deep breath.

She was feeling more like her than she had in months and her heart felt a step lighter as she twirled in the mirror. No matter what happened, she was going to get back down to business.

There was no knocking that night or the next morning, but she knew that was what would happen anyways. She went out and bought rolls of film instead and stowed them in a drawer before taking out a pad and paper she had and began to write down ideas.

She would need to find a media outlet that she could leak information to that would preserve her anonymity. She needed new places to get information from in the first place, although she was sure that she could go to the people that ran the brothels and the drug dealers and just ask them nicely for their records.

What she really needed was to get this all started or she feared that she might fall apart. There were fractures running all across her skin that led to her heart and her head and she felt like she might split in two. She needed to become herself again, slip back into her old skin, and become a shadow like she always way.

She needed to be Sombra again.

Hearing her name all over the radio following the weeks after the scandal had been too much for her. The point of calling herself Sombra had spawned from the idea that she would be unrecognizable like a shadow. She would blend in and while her cover had been blown, she didn’t have to let anyone know that she was Sombra.

Although the public would most likely think it was a prank if she ever revealed it.

She fell asleep with an image of herself in her mind, the image of her fading into the shadows, her entire being absorbed by the darkness as though she was the same as it, and only her eyes remained. Out of the shadows, electric purple eyes would stare out of the darkness and pass judgement on everyone who dared look into them.

When she woke up, she was not one with the shadows, but rather sprawled on her bed still in her nice clothes and the blankets in heaps on the floor around her. She sat up, confused, before brushing back part of her hair and sighing. Tonight, no matter what, she would start a new beginning for her business enterprise and she would become a new person. She didn’t want to sit around and wait to be a good or legal person, she wanted to go back to what she was good at. There was a nagging in her mind that told her that she wanted to go back to who she  _ really _ was.

“Sombra.” her voice was raspy and she looked in the mirror and took a deep breath. “Sombra.”

It was both exciting and comforting to slip back into her old name. Carmen always sounded so fake to her ears, it wasn’t like when Gabriel referenced her as Sombra or when Angela called her Olivia. Those were both names for herself that she recognized, but Carmen was fake. Carmen wasn’t anyone, really, just a cover story or a figment of her imagination.

She smoothed out her jacket and her shirt and then washed her face and brushed her teeth. “I’ll go to the grocery store…” She mumbled as she tied her tie. “I’ll make a list…”

There was a knock at the door and she almost fell over with surprise. 

“It’s a marketer.” She whispered, her hands shaking as she tried to convince herself. “Just a marketer.” Her heart was pounding in her chest as she struggled to make it to the door. The fight between her brain and her legs seemed to last for hours, but it was probably only a few moments before her unstable hands reached the doorknob and with no more reserve and caution left, threw the door to her apartment open.

Angela was standing on her doorstep.

Angela Ziegler.

Angela Ziegler, in all of her glory with her blonde hair a disheveled mess. Angela Ziegler, holding a small bag and backpack. Angela Ziegler, with red lips that were unstained by red wine this time and Sombra found herself at a complete loss for words.

For the second time that week, she began to cry. It wasn’t a controlled cry though, the tears flooded down her face and she gasped for air like a fish out of water. Before she could process what was happening, she was swept into an embrace and the door closed behind them. Angela was caressing her hair and Sombra clutched the fabric of her shirt like a lifeline.

“Oh, Olivia,” Angela cooed. “What  _ happened _ ?”

“I wanted to believe so bad that it was you.” Sombra whispered. “I wanted it to be you so bad.”

“What happened?” Angela guided her gently to the couch. “How did you get here? And what did you do to your hair?”

They sat next to each other on the couch and for another moment Sombra found herself at a loss of words again. “I had it done in an impulse decision.” She laughed. “I’m so sorry.” She shook her head and Angela grabbed her face.

“Something must’ve happened.”

“I struck a deal with Gabe.”

“What? Is that who leaked all of our information?”

“He told me that he could get the firepower from the media that we didn’t have, but he’d have to release all my information. He had already withdrawn all my money from the bank for me and he asked me what I wanted him to do. I told him to release it and I got on the first train to LA.”

“And that was...you?”

“On the phone?”

“Yeah.”

“It was me on the phone. I quit my job after that, by the way.”

Angela’s eyes scrunched together. “Now what?”

“I think I’m going to go back to what i do best.”

“You can’t possibly go back to the mob…”

“No, not the mob. There’s a lot of celebrity bullshit that happens around these parts, I think I can strike up a pretty good informant business.”

“Is that what you want?”

“I hate holding an actual job.”

Angela laughed. “I had a feeling that was going to happen.”

“Really?”

“You’re good at something, why stop?”

She laughed and then grew quiet. “Angela?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you come looking for me?”

“I wanted to.”

“It would just…” her thoughts were scrambled. “Wouldn’t it just be so much easier if you forgot I existed? Go live in your fame in Chicago and never have to work another day of your life?”

“But I didn’t want that. I couldn’t... I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try and find you because I was up all the time. I missed you. I was alone in my house and it didn’t feel right anymore. I missed you so goddamn much and I didn’t want to keep sitting there not knowing what happened. I didn’t know it was you on the phone until the very end and even then I thought it might have been a trick, but I’m here. I’m here because for the past three months all I did but wish I was wherever the hell you were.”

“You want to walk away from an actual life for...me?”

Angela fell quiet for a moment and then reached into her pocket. She pulled out a silver coin and gently pressed it into Sombra’s palm. “Two sides of the same coin.” She laughed breathily. “I think that no matter how much I tried to convince myself, bureaucracy was not for me.”

Sombra closed her fist around the coin and let her eyes flutter shut. She could sense Angela leaning in and let her press a gentle kiss against her lips. Instead of letting the coin fall to the floor, she carefully placed it in the front pocket of her jacket, and rested her hands on either side of Angela’s face.

“So,” Angela pulled away. “Do you have an idea where you want to get started?”

“I do.”

“Great.” Angela smiled and then glanced down as she laughed to herself. “Do you have any red wine?”


End file.
